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If there\u2019s anyone who understands what it really means to overcome adversity, it\u2019s Marnee Smith.<\/span><\/p>\n As a young, single mother, Smith struggled to survive and take care of her family. \u201cI recognized that education was crucial to providing a stable life for my children and me,\u201d stated Smith, \u201cso I earned a certificate as an administrative assistant and began working in an office.\u201d Not long after, Smith met and married her husband and had the opportunity to focus on raising her children and pursuing one of her passions \u2013 volunteer work.<\/span><\/p>\n Once all five of her children were in school, Smith began volunteering at her local fire department. According to Smith, \u201cWhen I initially began volunteering, I was terrified of taking medical calls because I didn\u2019t have any real experience in the field. I learned that a neighboring fire department was sponsoring an EMT class, so I signed up in order to enhance my skills.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Shortly after completing the course tragedy literally struck one night in the form of lightning that destroyed the interior of her home. \u201cWe could salvage nothing,\u201d recounts Smith. \u201cIt was a total loss.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n That might have been enough to cause anyone to give up, but not Smith. \u201cAfter the fire, my husband and I decided to go to the fire academy and become Texas-commissioned firefighters and use that knowledge to benefit our local department and community,\u201d she said. It was during this time that Smith decided to pursue a career as an EMS provider and began working part-time for Cooke County EMS. That soon turned into a full-time position and gave her the drive to continue her education and pursue her paramedic certification.<\/span><\/p>\n Just when it appeared that Smith had finally triumphed over all the adversities that any one person should confront, she was involved in a major accident while responding to an emergency call. Not only did she end up spending a significant amount of time in the hospital, the accident resulted in the amputation of her right leg below the knee.<\/span><\/p>\n Enduring months of rehabilitation and therapy gave Smith plenty of time to think about her future. When she was finally able to return to work, it was in a different and equally rewarding position. \u201cI began to dissect the other aspects of this field that I love, including the first-rate education I had received from my NCTC instructors,\u201d she said. Smith researched the requirements needed to teach at NCTC\u2019s EMS program and began working as an adjunct instructor for the department.<\/span><\/p>\n Fast forward 10 years and Smith continues to improve her skills in the field. \u201cIn addition to being a teacher, mother and peer, I am now also working as a tech in the simulation lab on the NCTC Gainesville campus,\u201d she said. \u201cI have enjoyed getting to experience both the nursing and EMS sides of the healthcare field.\u201d And, she is pursuing her bachelor\u2019s degree in emergency medicine at the University of Texas San Antonio.<\/span><\/p>\n Through it all, Smith has remained positive about her career and her life, noting, \u201cThough the road has been long, I am forever grateful to NCTC for providing this mother of five a chance to not only work in the field of EMS, but to also be a participant in the education of our future healthcare providers, the ones who dare to care.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If there\u2019s anyone who understands what it really means to overcome adversity, it\u2019s Marnee Smith. As a young, single mother, Smith struggled to survive and take care of her family. \u201cI recognized that education was crucial to providing a stable life for my children and me,\u201d stated Smith, \u201cso I earned a certificate as an… read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[],"article_type":[],"class_list":["post-61","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-success-story","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2018-volume-3-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2018-volume-3-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2018-volume-3-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2018-volume-3-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2018-volume-3-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2018-volume-3-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231,"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2018-volume-3-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions\/231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2018-volume-3-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2018-volume-3-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2018-volume-3-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2018-volume-3-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2018-volume-3-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2018-volume-3-issue-1\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2018\/02\/Marnee-photo-1-300x200.jpg\")
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