{"id":3017,"date":"2018-06-04T08:00:26","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T08:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=3017"},"modified":"2018-06-01T21:49:10","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T21:49:10","slug":"tstc-alum-sets-example-for-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=3017","title":{"rendered":"TSTC Alum sets example for others"},"content":{"rendered":"

(HARLINGEN) – It was only three years ago when Jessica Pecina graduated with her associate degree in Health Information Technology from Texas State Technical College; a degree she never expected to get until she had to set a positive example.<\/p>\n

This was the second time around at TSTC for the 39-year-old who is now a surveillance specialist with the Department of State Health Services in Harlingen and travels from Laredo to Corpus Christi monitoring birth defects and epidemiology, which is the study and analysis of the distribution and causes of disease.<\/p>\n

She first graduated from TSTC with a certificate in nursing assistant and phlebotomy in 2000.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a teen mom so when I graduated from high school, TSTC was the best choice for me,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was affordable, close to home and a way for me to get a college education that would later help me support my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Harlingen native ended up working for Valley Baptist Medical Center for a little more than a decade before moving to a local home health care agency where she began handling and managing medical records as supervisor.\"Jessica<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the type of person who wants to do things right if I\u2019m going to do them,\u201d she said. \u201cSo having no medical record experience wasn\u2019t sitting right with me. So I said, \u2018Why not, let me go back to school.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Pecina said the timing could not have been better, because it was also during this period that Pecina\u2019s daughter, now 24, graduated high school and immediately found out she was pregnant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was also my chance to show my daughter, that no matter the circumstances, even as a teen mom, going to college was a possibility,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing mom should never stop you from following your dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n

So while working full-time, the mother of two and grandmother enrolled in Health Information Technology as a full-time student.<\/p>\n

\u201cTSTC opened my eyes to the bigger picture of my profession,\u201d said Pecina. \u201cAnd since I was already working in the profession, the program helped me better understand the rules, laws and regulations I needed to be following.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pecina added that the support from faculty and staff and training she received at TSTC was invaluable for her success, especially as a parent.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone I ever encountered was so helpful and understanding. It was the faculty and staff that helped us all make it through the program\u201d she said. \u201cLessons and training were thorough and gave us the foundation we needed to begin a \u2018successful\u2019 career in the field. Everything I do in the field is what I learned in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

She recognizes Health Information Technology instructor Ana Gonzalez as one of her best mentors.<\/p>\n

\u201cAna is so welcoming and helpful toward everyone. She understand that life happens and we face challenges as students so she is always there to support us, offer advice and help us in any way she can, even after we graduate,\u201d said Pecina.<\/p>\n

Pecina is now pursuing an online bachelor\u2019s degree from the University of Cincinnati in Health Information Management and sits on the TSTC Health Information Management advisory committee.<\/p>\n

She also hopes to pursue a master\u2019s degree in health informatics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recommend anyone who is looking for a college or to change careers to check out TSTC,\u201d said Pecina. \u201cTSTC has helped me find a career that supports my family and has helped me grow. It has changed my life for the better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Health Information Technology is offered at TSTC\u2019s Harlingen and Abilene campuses and is also offered 100 percent online.<\/p>\n

For more information on the program, visit tstc.edu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(HARLINGEN) – It was only three years ago when Jessica Pecina graduated with her associate degree in Health Information Technology from Texas State Technical College; a degree she never expected to get until she had to set a positive example. This was the second time around at TSTC for the 39-year-old who is now a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-harlingen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3017"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3019,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3017\/revisions\/3019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}