Two National Park College respiratory therapy students were recently awarded the Professional Achievement in Respiratory Care scholarship from the Lawrence Respiratory Foundation.
Leslie Huggs and Amy Techert, both preparing to graduate in May 2024, were awarded the $1,800 scholarship, according to a news release which noted the scholarship is only open to students in the respiratory care program.
Students must have a minimum GPA of 3.0, be a member of the American Association for Respiratory Care and the Arkansas Society for Respiratory Care and participate in an interview with scholarship board members, the release said.
Huggs, originally from Benton, chose to pursue a career in respiratory therapy, taking inspiration from her family, she said.
"My dad has had a lot of health issues," she said. "A lot of my family members have COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). They're smokers. And I have a couple of nurse family members, and they really just inspired me to go into health care. But, I didn't wanna do nursing. So, my dad told me about his friend who's a respiratory therapist."
Receiving the scholarship has made Huggs feel "really blessed," she said. Although she lived on campus in her first year of the program, she recently had to move home to Benton.
"I have a 12-year-old sister who I have to kinda help take care of and my grandmother," she said.
"They just have health issues, and so I had to move back home, and so I'm driving back and forth from Benton every day. That's a lot of gas. It was really convenient living on campus. And now, it's just a little bit harder for me financially, so I'm just really blessed to not have to worry about my tuition. It's one thing off my plate."
Huggs has a love for the pediatric side of respiratory care, she said.
"If you can come in and do breathing treatment and make them happy for that moment or make them feel better for that moment, it's just rewarding," she said.
Huggs hopes to work for Arkansas Children's Hospital as a respiratory therapist and eventually pursue her bachelor's degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, she said.
"My goal in life is just to have a bachelor's degree," she said. "I'll be the first one in my intermediate family on my dad's side."
Techert, originally from Wisconsin, has lived in Arkansas for the majority of her life, she said, noting she knew she wanted to pursue health care, and she chose to go back to school for respiratory therapy.
"The respiratory therapists were a whole new ballgame," she said. "They were some of the only people that seemed to actually put the patient first and ask the patient, 'Well, tell me what's this, how does this feel?' And it just stuck in my head ever since."
Her plans include moving to Michigan, where many of her daughter's family members live, she said. Unsure whether she'll ever pursue a higher degree, she plans to start working as a respiratory therapist after she graduates from NPC.
" I haven't thought about going further in my education until recently," she said. "I've been talking to a lot of our preceptors, people that we stick with during our clinical times, and a lot of them have been talking about the benefits of going and getting your bachelor's. ... I'm thinking about it. I'm not decided yet."
Techert was introduced to NPC by a neighbor who started classes there, she said. After learning about the college's respiratory care program, she decided to sign up.
"There's such a good reputation about this school," she said. "It's hard, but it's worth it because it's not a job to be taken lightly. It's the best decision I've made."