How community programs have helped one Eagle County student find her path to college and beyond
Lifelong Gypsum resident Juliana Carrazco, 19, took the first step toward nursing via Eagle County School District's youth apprenticeship program. She plans to earn her nursing degree at Colorado Mountain College
Vail Health/Courtesy photo
Born and raised in Eagle County, 19-year-old Gypsum resident Juliana Carrazco wants to stay local long-term.
She plans to make that possible through a path she started on as a high school student.
“Everyone leaves the valley. I feel like it’s important to have people that have grown here, that have those roots,” she said.
From CareerWise to career
As a junior at Battle Mountain High School, Carrazco participated in CareerWise, a youth apprenticeship program offered through the Eagle County School District and the Vail Valley Partnership which connects students with local businesses to work between 16 and 40 hours per week. Students participating in CareerWise earn between $12 and $18 per hour for their work, and some receive job offers upon completion.
“I always knew I wanted to help people in some way, and I knew health care was pretty hands-on,” Carrazco said.
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Through CareerWise, Carrazco began working as part-time in materials management at Vail Health Hospital, the very hospital where she was born, while still attending high school.
“That was a great experience. I saw surgeries, which I had never seen, and I was only 17,” Carrazco said. “It was such an eye opener.”
Carrazco spent almost a year working in materials management, then switched jobs to work as a unit clerk for the Patient Care Unit at Vail Health Hospital.
“I always knew I wanted to take a gap year after high school, after graduation, so I took that gap year and I started working full-time as the unit clerk in Vail on the Patient Care Unit,” Carrazco said. “I was still trying to figure it out.”
At the time, Carrazco was trying to determine the path she wanted to take in college and for a long-term career. “‘I don’t know if I want to be a nurse, I don’t know if I want to do something else, but I want to help people,'” Carrazco recalled thinking.
While working on the Patient Care Unit, Carrazco met patient care technicians and nurses who encouraged her to obtain her Certified Nursing Assistant license and work alongside them. This past summer, she took a Certified Nursing Assistant course through Colorado Mountain College Vail Valley at Edwards while working as a unit clerk.
“I was super motivated to get my CNA. Vail Health has been so supportive of me, especially the leadership team,” Carrazco said.
It was not always easy; Carrazco said she questioned her decision to take a gap year several times as she watched her peers from high school enter college.
“I’m like, ‘I’m so behind, everyone is already in college, all my friends are in college, and I’m still here, not doing anything, just working.’ But I wasn’t realizing that it had opened my eyes so much,” Carrazco said. “I’m really proud of myself for sticking through that gap year, because if I didn’t, I would have rushed into something that I didn’t want to do.”
Carrazco is now working full-time as a patient care technician on the Patient Care Unit at Vail Health Hospital.
“My favorite part of the job is seeing how I can help people,” Carrazco said. “I was raised that way.”
“I think that’s what is so rewarding about being a care tech — you see those patients that go through so much, and then you’re making their day by just filling up their water or helping them go to the restroom,” Carrazco said. “Those little things matter.”
Her experience working with patients at Vail Health convinced Carrazco to become a nurse.
On top of work, Carrazco now attends college at Colorado Mountain College Vail Valley part-time to earn the prerequisite credits she needs to apply to nursing school.
“I would love to be in their nursing program one day,” Carrazco said. “That’s the goal.”
‘Take advantage of these programs’
The combination of obtaining a job at Vail Health through CareerWise and taking a gap year to work full-time at the hospital were essential in helping her figure out the path she wanted to take in life, Carrazco said.
“It took me a year, but I’m glad I took that gap year,” she said. “When you’re a senior (in high school), you’re so rushed into knowing what you want to do. I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to spend so much money on something that I didn’t want to do. So I’m really glad I took that year off, and I’m glad I joined CareerWise, because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here.”
While participating in CareerWise, Carrazco made two close friends who were also placed in materials management jobs at Vail Health through CareerWise. All three have continued to work at Vail Health in different roles — one as a medical assistant, one in the medical records department and Carrazco as a patient care technician.
“Programs like CareerWise are helping the community grow and helping people stay here,” Carrazco said. “My (three older) siblings never had that, they never had these open doors.”
Carrazco advised current Eagle County School District students to take advantage of programs like CareerWise, and, more broadly, for Eagle County residents to look for and participate in similar opportunities.
“In high school, the Hispanic community, they don’t really take advantage of these programs,” Carrazco said. “I want people to know that it’s okay to try new things. I want the Hispanic community, and other communities, too, to take advantage of these programs, because they do help so much at the end of the day.”
