How 1 EVIT health student found passion, success

We tell students all the time that they can find their passion at EVIT, that they can use the skills they learn here to launch a career or pay their way through higher education as they pursue their dreams.

We know it's true. But sometimes, it helps if they hear it from one of their own -- someone who has been in their shoes, sat in their classroom and has gone on to establish a fulfilling career.

Dr. Neil Roundy came to speak to EVIT health students on Tuesday. Dr. Roundy is a neurosurgeon at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. And just 12 years ago, he was a student in EVIT's health foundations class, figuring out that he had a passion for all things "brain."

"EVIT was an eye-opener and a door-opener for me," Dr. Roundy told the health students. "It was a start to get me where I wanted to be."

Dr. Roundy went on from EVIT to further his medical education at Arizona State University and the University of Arizona. But he credits EVIT as being the place where he discovered his passion and began working toward his dream of becoming a neurosurgeon. Health instructor Gale Landau, who still teaches at EVIT, took the time to match him up with the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix so he could sit and watch surgeries as a high school student. That experience is something Dr. Roundy looks back on as being key to peaking his interest and strengthening his passion.

"You are a large step, if not a leap, ahead of other students your age," Dr. Roundy said. "The fact that you have the initiative to step forward and say, 'I'm interested in my future;' that's a huge advantage for you."