Chiropractic is a great way to make a connection with people while helping them.
I've been interested in becoming a chiropractor since I was in high school. Back then, my mom would take me along when she visited her chiropractor. I thought it was amazing that he could ease her back pain with his hands. I decided to study chiropractic because I enjoy being around people. Chiropractic is a great way to make a connection with people while helping them.
I chose to study at D'Youville initially because I was looking for a school where I could earn my doctor of chiropractic degree in the least amount of time. D'Youville offers a combined degree Biology (BS) + Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) degree which takes only seven years to complete from when you start as a freshman.
The Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP) helped further my interest in chiropractic by providing speakers and different workshops that focused on the health care field. Some of the workshops made me realize that a lot of patients are being underserved in health care and they don't know that chiropractic may be a good option for treating their pain. This makes me want to work even harder to let the community know that other treatments exist. In the program, we learned about different health care fields and how they work together. Ultimately we learned that no matter what health field we go into, our top priority must be the patients’ overall health and well-being.
The most exciting thing about the chiropractic program is that the professors come from many different backgrounds and are graduates of various chiropractic schools across the country. This is helpful because we learn different viewpoints of chiropractic from our professors.
Health care careers are growing and it is a great time to take advantage of that. In many fields such as in chiropractic you can be your own boss and run you own office. There is also a great opportunity to travel and relocate to work anywhere because these jobs are needed everywhere. Most importantly I believe that when working in health care a person has more time to learn about themselves and has a wonderful chance to give back to their community.
So far I've done an independent internship with Erie County Chiropractic Clinic to learn more about how a chiropractic business runs. I'm really looking forward to when I start clinical training because it's a great way to learn how to actually interact with patients and to realize what kind of setting you want to work in.
As a D'Youville student I've participated in some great community service opportunities. For example, I took part in the annual Lending a Hand trip to help rebuild New Orleans. The experience reminded me that we should always give back to the community in any way we can.
I've also served as a Resident Assistant (RA) in the dorms for three years, while I was doing the undergraduate portion of my program. Being an RA taught me how to balance my time and how to engage with people when they might feel uncomfortable. I know what it's like because when I first arrived on campus as a freshman I felt homesick. Now, I feel like I'm almost part of a family because the DYC community is so friendly and supportive.
Katarina Brubaker-Escobar
Combined Degree Student
Biology (BS) + Doctor of Chiropractic (DC)