What was your involvement in the MSC?

I was part of the MSC CAMAC - A Latinx Programming Committe and member of the MSC SCOLA - Student Conference on Latinx Affairs executive team.

What does a day in your life look like currently?

My everyday life and routine has changed dramatically over the last two months. I work as a nurse at an urgent care and my days start early around 7 a.m.. It’s important for me to allocate time to get ready, eat breakfast, get a good morning stretch and mentally prepare for another 12 hour shift. Music is an essential component to lift my spirits and overall mood for the day. Once I’m at work, I complete my morning duties, prepare my PPE for the day and briefly connect and catch up with my co-workers. It’s always important to connect and allow for normalcy to still linger among my coworker family and work environment. We share a good story, relay some good news, and I always try to amp up the funny meter by saying something funny and witty to get them to smile. I sometimes get the “It’s too early Rosa” as they try to hide their smiles from me. If I get one of my co-workers to smile, then that is a win for the day. From there its go time, rain or shine. With COVID invading our communities around the world, many are scared and concerned with the possibility of contracting the virus. Our facility is one of the few clinics to offer both the PCR COVID test and also the antigen COVID test. With that said first half of my day is seeing 15 patients every hour on the hour for antigen testing. The skill of multitasking is an absolute must, as our normal urgent care services are still being provided. We are also performing the PCR COVID test which can take some time to complete as infection control is reinforced. Balancing the elements of good ol’ Texas humidity and heat only add a pzazz to the already exhausting day. I leave my shift around 8:30 p.m., sometimes closer to 9 p.m. I head home to then sashay out my scrubs, remove and wipe everything all outside my home. All clothes are immediately washed and I proceed to scrub clean into the shower. I try to unwind and then off to bed early and repeat all over again the next day.

The MSC helps build leaders by providing opportunities to improve skills such as critical thinking, active listening, giving and receiving feedback, and others. What skills did you gain in your involvement with the MSC and how did your time as a student leader prepare you for your role during this challenging and unforeseen time?

Reminiscing on past events, presentations and programs during my time with MSC SCOLA, I realize that the ones that instilled the most growth where the ones that strayed from the original plan. These detours allowed us as a team to rethink, regroup and reproach the end goal with a different perspective. When things don’t go as planned, it shines light on areas that required improvement and those are experiences I still draw on today. My time at Texas A&M allowed me to walk away with the ability to acknowledge when something is and isn’t working and be willing to accept that and adjust course.

If you were to return to your time in the MSC, what skills would you personally focus on strengthening, especially in your current situation?

If I could, I would work on strengthening my decisiveness most. More and more, we are being asked to make decisions with less and less time for consideration and consultation. I've never been a particularly decisive person so this has challenged me, especially with the acuity of cases that keep presenting to our inpatient wards.

The MSC core values are Respect, Excellence, Leadership, Loyalty, Integrity, Service and Diversity. What core value best describes the work you do today?

Integrity is the core value that best represents my work on the frontline. I firmly believe that if you interlace integrity in everything you do, then the quality of respect, excellence, leadership, loyalty, service and diversity will outlast any circumstance. We did not choose the circumstances we are currently in nor where we prepared for how it would affect us all. One thing that is for sure is that we still have control of how we can act and react to the given circumstance. We have the choice to be compassionate, caring, prudent but above all honest and unvarying moral. Doing the right thing in a time where there is much left to the unknown, we must never allow for our moral compass to waver.

What is one of your favorite memories from being involved in the MSC?

There are so many favorite memories but coming together as a committee was always fun! We always tried to have food and snacks at our meetings. I remember one time we all brought pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread) and had hot chocolate as we hand painted our MSC CAMAC shirts for an event. Always laughing at every meeting and we kept the fun in everything we did as a team.

What else would you like to share about the MSC?

Thank you for the opportunity to share my personal experience and for all the other frontline workers. Thanks and Gig'Em!