Sarah Fitch-Hawkins, MSRS, RT(R)(CT)(ARRT)

I attribute my success to determination and my support group. I've always tried to set short-term goals and long-term goals, because I have an attention span problem. If I just think about my long-term goals, I get overwhelmed very easily, but I know what I want to accomplish, so I just set several goals along the way to help me get there. For a long time, I was a single mom for several years, and my determination was not just for my personal benefit, but to also show my son that you don't have to just be kept back by your situation. My background was not pretty, and I never wanted him to see that personal situations keep you down. I wanted him to see that you can change your circumstances. Now, I have a good, supportive husband who was definitely supportive of me going back to school. I decided to go back on a whim, and the opportunity presented itself. I was accepted into the first program I applied to, and I was like, well, I guess I'm going.

The best career advice I ever received is to love what you do. Don't do something just for the money, because you will be sorely disappointed in a lot of aspects if you do something just for the money. I genuinely love teaching people. I love seeing when my students actually connect to something, when they make that connection that, oh, okay, I finally get it. She explained it in a different way, and now I get it. A lot of people don't get it the first time, so I have to adjust. I can't always make them adjust. That's been a challenge, learning new teaching strategies, but it's also one of my favorite things to do. I want to be able to adjust to these students and help them and help them grow and see them actually do well. For me, that's one of my favorite things about it.

Don't take no for an answer. Radiologic Sciences is one thing, but education is totally different. I've been told no by several people, even jobs that I just knew I had, and then I was told no. But I also didn't quit. I was told no over the years through my clinical years, and I worked my butt off. I know I'm really good as a clinical tech, and I knew that if I carried that same mentality over to education, eventually I would be good at that too. When I first came into education, when I first picked up my first class up here, I taught it, and I bombed it. I felt horrible, because I was like, there's no way these students learned anything from me. I got the most horrible feedback. But the second time around was so much better, because I knew how to make adjustments. I was able to not only adjust to my students, but my co-workers. I don't trust easily, but I have found that once you have a good support system, even at work, it makes things much easier. If you can learn from people, take that opportunity, because it does not come easily.

Right now, the challenge is being away from my family, but it was also too good of an opportunity to pass up. I had been looking for a full-time teaching job for almost 2 years, and I knew that eventually I was probably going to have to move because I wanted to work at a college. The school back home was basically on a hiring freeze for like 5 years, and those jobs I wanted to be in were hard to get into, so I knew we were going to have to be willing to move. That's the biggest challenge right now, that we had to move, but it's also a really good opportunity. I have the opportunity to move up. They've already talked to me about becoming Assistant Program Director, nothing official, but because I've shown the determination for it and the desire for the job. Plus, it was just one of the short-term goals that I had for myself anyways. It's scary, but at least I have a good support group. My husband is very, very supportive.

I value dedication and just some sort of work ethic. To me, I have found that a lot of times these days, it's just not as prevalent as it used to be, a good strong work ethic. I don't think people are really born with a work ethic. I think they have to be shown that, and shown how important it is, and that's what I try to show my students. I don't just teach full-time, I still do clinical work, and I still help out at a freestanding ER back home every other weekend. I still tutor for CT students that are sitting for their registries to try to help them out. I just try to show them what a strong work ethic looks like. I commute for this job because my family's still back home in Southeast Texas, and this new job was in Fort Worth, and I didn't want to move the kids in the middle of the school year. Every weekend, I travel from Fort Worth to Orange, Texas, five and a half hours each way. I drive up on Mondays and drive home Thursday night after I get off of work. It's important for me for my kids to see that if you want something, then just work hard for it. Just try. My husband shows our kids the same thing every day.