Napa Valley College: Long Road For Respiratory Therapy Student Ends At Mayo Clinic

Press release from Napa Valley College:

2021-11-22

The way Sydney Kauppinen tells it, she never expected to end up with her dream job as a neonatal/pediatric respiratory therapist at the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Growing up in Vallejo, she wasn’t really interested in school or grades. In retrospect, she says, her lack of interest in the standardized content of high school and what she suspects was an undiagnosed case of ADHD resulted in her expulsion from school in 9th grade. She eventually finished high school with the help of an independent study program, motivation provided by her mother, Julia, and classes at Napa Valley College.

“I started Napa Valley College when I was in high school, about age 15 or 16,” she says now. “I needed credits to graduate, so Mom and I took a physical fitness class together.” That PE class began a 15-year odyssey, filled with hard work, tragedy and a self-awareness journey that culminated with her graduation from NVC in May 2021 with a degree in Respiratory Care. She also completed associate degrees in Pre-health Science and Natural Science and Mathematics while completing her prerequisites for Respiratory Care.

Still not sure what she wanted to do after finally graduating from high school, Sydney turned her attention to the medical field at her mother’s suggestion, taking dozens of classes and working as first a medical assistant, then an EMT, for the next decade. “College changed me. They teach differently and I was taking courses I was interested in,” Sydney says. It didn’t hurt that Julia was a nursing student at NVC in 2016, taking classes alongside her daughter. Although Sydney also had a father and a brother, difficult family dynamics bonded mother and daughter as they pursued their futures together.

“I still have her nursing program acceptance letter,” Sydney says.

During those years of school and work, Sydney became an advocate for mental health, and says she encouraged NVC students to take advantage of the school’s counseling and therapy resources. “I want people to know that it is OK to have setbacks; it is OK to move at your own pace and don’t let anyone tell you that something you want is not for you,“ she says. “Everyone is going through something and deserves support.”

In addition to her mother, counseling and therapy, Sydney credits the NVC instructors with keeping her motivated.

“There is a particular teacher who helped me more than she will ever know when I returned to NVC after finishing high school,” Sydney said. “Math teacher Ksenia Owens. When I returned, I scored at the lowest level in math, which made me feel hopeless. Ksenia was a great teacher, professional and caring.

“Because of her, I learned math and grew to like it, which allowed me to excel in my medical classes later on. And the respiratory program is lots of math – determining oxygen content in blood, factoring in the patient’s body weight.”

This press release was produced by Napa Valley College. The views expressed here are the author’s own.