Samantha Henning, Athletic Training Student

Samantha Henning's schedule is so full that it reads more like something you'd expect from a seasoned career executive instead of a college student. She juggles three jobs, several classes, gymnastics and a weekly babysitting gig.

The focused 20-year-old also has her future mapped out. After Henning graduates from NCC later this year she expects to transfer to East Stroudsburg University, where she plans to finish her degree in Athletic Training before she moves on to complete two more years with the eventual goal of becoming a physician's assistant.

"I'm very school-oriented," explains Henning. "That comes from my sister, who is finishing medical school. I'm very driven because of her."

It took testing the waters at NCC, however, for Henning to discover that she was interested in following in her sister's footsteps and entering a medical field. Henning originally enrolled in the paralegal program, but decided after a few weeks that it wasn't a good fit for her. As someone who enjoys being physically active and also teaches a cycling class, it's not surprising that her current program major would eventually catch her eye.

"One of the things I like about NCC is that you can get a feel for college and decide what you want to do. I took the prerequisites and got accepted into the program, and I think something a lot of people don't know about the major itself is that you can work in many types of environments."

Henning has already decided that becoming a physician's assistant is her ultimate goal, which even surprised her since she didn't expect to enjoy the hands-on approach to diagnosing and treating injuries as much as she has.

"My favorite thing about the program so far is definitely how hands-on it is," says Henning. "We get to do blood pressure, the fitting of equipment, wrapping and other things that help us learn. There are so many different parts to break up. For instance, if someone has inflammatory response, there's three different phases but then each phase is broken up into other categories."

So how has Henning learned to juggle all of her own categories of responsibilities?

"I just learned to balance my time. That's what it was," says Henning. "When I leave here, I'm going to take away all of the skills that I learned, and the number one lesson that I learned, which is that school needs to come first."