Alumni Spotlight: Brenda Mendoza
Jun 28, 2024I represent my community, my people, the females, the mothers.
Brenda Mendoza, RCC graduate
Brenda Mendoza always wanted to work in health care. Her goal was nursing, but once she got to Rockingham Community College, she discovered there were many career options, such as surgical technology.
“I was interested in the Surgical Technology program in part because at the time, it was a shorter program,” she said. “People think [a surg tech] is the person that has the instruments, but it’s more than that. You’re the surgeon’s right hand. I take a lot of value in that.”
Mendoza had been a machine operator for years, working in factories. When she took her prerequisite classes, she was also working a full-time, night-shift job.
“I worked and worked, and worked extra so I could save enough money to go into this program,” she said. This enabled her to not have to work during her last semester, so she could dedicate herself to her plan and her clinicals.
“One of the requirements of entering the program is that we don’t work third shift because during clinical time, we have to be awake, be confident in what we’re doing,” she said.
But it definitely was not easy.
“I am a mom of four girls, and that was a challenge in itself,” she said.
Mendoza entered the program when her youngest daughter was just a year old.
“She was a handful, and during COVID, a lot of daycares closed so I had a hard time finding childcare. I would go to Eden, drop her off at my mom’s, and come to RCC,” she said. “I tried to do homework over there. Sometimes she’d cry and I’d cry. It was a lot.”
But Mendoza kept going, mostly for her daughters, and graduated in the summer of 2022. She now works in labor and delivery at the Women’s and Children’s Center at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro.
“I had come to RCC throughout the years for different things. I changed my major, and people would say I didn’t even know what I wanted. But it’s okay as long as you’re here trying. That’s what matters. And it doesn’t matter how long it takes. You just work toward that goal and once you achieve it, it’s a great feeling.”
The health care field was a completely new direction for Mendoza, but she jumped right into her new studies.
“My favorite part was the clinicals, to actually be going into these places and experience first-hand all of the different procedures, being able to see human anatomy and how it truly looks inside,” she said.
“[RCC’s Simulated Hospital] has a lot of the real instruments and tables we use at work, and the dummies have organs that are very similar to reality,” Mendoza said. “It helps you familiarize yourself with the instruments and the fact that you have to be sterile, so that when you go to clinicals, you’re ready. The instructors pretend like they’re the doctors and maybe are a little aggressive toward us because it’s not always going to be pretty.”
Having just a small number of students in her class meant a lot of one-on-one attention from the instructors – and Mendoza and her classmates became close.
“We would chat, quiz each other, and study together,” she said. “On days when I thought that I don’t know about this, they were there to talk and give me motivation.”
Mendoza’s instructors were also motivational, not letting her quit the program when she felt like dropping out. She took advantage of many resources at RCC, like counseling and tutoring. She learned about them when she attended new student orientation and through emails.
“The instructors send a lot of information that’s very useful through email like study guides, and you could have done well on a test if only you would have read your email,” she said.
“I love this college. I tell my girls, just go to the community college. Universities cost a lot of money, but coming here allows you to get a head start to whatever you want,” Mendoza said.
“In my family, we didn’t have anyone who graduated from college, so I’m the first one. It really is huge. I represent my community, my people, the females, the mothers,” she said.
Relatives who said they would never attend college have changed their minds. Mendoza’s niece is now in RCC’s Cosmetology program, and her sister has applied to the College, with a goal of working with animals.
Mendoza is inspirational at the hospital as well.
“I walked into a patient’s room one day and they told me how proud they felt just to see a Hispanic working in the health field. It makes me feel so good. They don’t know me, but they felt so proud because they saw a Mexican doing very well,” she said.
Hispanics are drawn to her when they have trouble communicating with other hospital staff.
“A couple came up to me and I didn’t know how to say ‘registration’ in Spanish to tell them to go back downstairs to get registered,” she said. “At Moses Cone they have translators, but sometimes they’re not available because they’re busy with somebody else. They have tablets [for translation] but sometimes they’d just rather have somebody to talk to.”
Now Mendoza’s personal goal in life is to learn Spanish words for anatomy
“I don’t ever want somebody to ask me a question me not be able to answer,” she said.
Mendoza wants others to know there is hope in the future.
“I had my first daughter when I was 15. I feel like teenage girls that have kids think that their world is over or they’re not going to be able to do all these things. But it doesn’t matter how long it takes. Just move toward your goal. You can do it,” she said.
“Don’t get discouraged about anything that’s going on in your life. You can accomplish any goal that you have you can conquer and get through anything that you are thinking you want to do,” Mendoza said. “Life is never perfect, but you just have to have hope and work hard towards everything.”
~By Gerri Hunt, RCC Director of Public Information
