  My plans for the upcomming week: Take the SATs tomorrow, an two AP exams next week. Lots of studying to do. Otherwise not much has been going on. I've been trying to pick up the pace academically, given my new chosen career. I'm still trying to figure out how to introduce the idea to my dad, who is unaware of the sudden change. I know he won't like it, as I would basically need to take four years of Premed before Med school. And since I won't emerge from my undergraduate education with a degree that will immediately provide me with a career, he won't approve (I'd either have to do another two years or four years of graduate school for a PA or a MD, respectively). I'm also having trouble explaining to other adults what I want to do. Everyone belives that I should persue a technology career, given my aptitude for the area.
But the field of technology just doesn't have the same rewards as medicine. That aside, I think the school and the school's administration had much to do with the change. Sometime before I leave this school, I intend to compose a letter to the technology committee, letting them know they failed. They may have an excellent program in place for those who need a basic technology education, but they fail to foster interest in the field at a higher level. Sure, they offer the CISCO program, however those that enter the program frequently are profiled for investigation by school tech admins, and CCNA, while a very necessary certification, is heavily academic course. Not that it is a bad thing, but to a certian extent, the school needs to allow students to put their interest to work in a useful setting.
Interested technology students see the school network admins as enemies, not mentors, and the admins see students as threats, not assets. At the same time, I will complete my EMT certification through Barlow in June. Next fall, thanks to my Barlow education, I will be put in situations where I can save someone else's life. How can the school put me in a position where I hold a human life in my hands yet not let me touch the keyboard of the school's terminal server?
As part of the EMT curriculum, I have to spend time in a hospital emergency room, but as a Cisco student, a school admin won't utter a word about the network to me, even if I plead on my knees. Sure, Mr. Mondi isn't the hot PA in the emergency room, but that has so little to do with the situation. In the ER, I was trusted, I was given responsibilites. In Barlow, I am subjected to a high-tempered network admin screaming at me during a class for something he later admitted was incorrect. To him, I was the enemy, the knowledgable Cisco student, the epitome of all things evil. To the PA, I was an EMT student, an indivdual who needed to be given the opportunities to practice the skills I had learned in a classroom setting. It's no wonder I want to go into medicine. Who do I want to end up working with - Mr. Mondi ("Flash drives!
NEVER AGAIN! NEVER AGAIN! "), Mr. Gerasoni ("I highly suggest you quit the terminal and get back to what you are supposed to be doing! "), or the PA ("Hey Ross! Could you hook up an EKG in room 12? Thanks a lot, I'll be right there!"). The school has to realize that the network admins, even if they are not teachers, are responsible for advancing learning, too. After all, it's supposed to be their mission to respect the diversity of student abilities and interests .
There are a number of reasons that there is such a difference between the EMT course and the technology department, starting with the administrators who oversee the programs, but ultimately the responsibility lies with every staff member within them. The bottom line is, the technology department has failed. They have taken a student destined for a computer career, a student who operates his own computer consulting business, who has lived and breathed computers for every year of his life since the fourth grade (during which their was, incidently, a voluntary program for students interested in technology to service the school's computers), and repelled him to the extent that he has chosen a completely unrelated field. Nice job, Barlow tech committee. Maybe you might reconsider your positions in the future. 
