Above and Beyond

Written by Nicole Granger, Southern Crescent Technical College

About two years ago I was accepted into the Radiologic Technology Program at Southern Crescent Technical College. Considering how competitive the program is to get into, I could only imagine what the next two years would have in store for me. A few weeks before school started, I was introduced to Dana Breeser, the program director, at our orientation. Very quickly into the orientation I realized that Dana had very high expectations for the students entering her Radiologic Technology program. She would accept nothing but full determination and dedication from her students during the next two years.
Our program started in August 2019. As much as I thought I prepared myself for this, I was immediately overwhelmed and stressed. Between the quizzes, tests, and labs I was already questioning my ability to continue in this program. There were many times that I thought I wasn’t cut out for this field, and that I should just drop out sooner rather than later. However, for some reason I decided to stick it out and continue working hard.
I truly believe that the reason I decided to stick it out is because of my amazing instructors, especially Dana. She is very tough on all her students, but I realized within the first month of the program that she would do anything and everything in her power to help her students. Whether she needed to stay late to clarify a question someone had or take the entire class into the lab to demonstrate what we were currently learning, she would stop at nothing until she knew that her students understood what she was teaching to us.
Halfway through our second semester of the program is when COVID started. We were immediately switched to virtual learning for the next several months. I will be the first to admit I had multiple breakdowns during our time of virtual classes. Nonetheless, Dana worked even harder to teach my class. She would make slideshows for all our online classes so we could follow along. She would find the best videos to watch to make everything “click” for us. Even when the biggest curve ball was thrown at her, Dana found a way to go above and beyond to make this program continue during a global pandemic.
Time and time again Dana showed me that she is truly passionate about what she teaches, and that motivated me even more to learn everything she had to teach us. Throughout my entire education, I cannot recall one teacher that went above and beyond the way that Dana has for her students this past year. Dana’s drive and dedication to shape her students into the best possible Radiologic Technologists is one of the many reasons I am proud to say I was a part of the Radiologic Technology program at SCTC. I can only hope that once I graduate and start my career that I am able to make Dana proud to have me as one of her students.