Hello everyone! My name is Sarah, and I have been a student on the NUHS Lombard campus since Fall of 2014.Right now, I am pursuing dual degrees in Chiropractic and Oriental Medicine. Being in two programs, I regularly joke about how that means that I never go home. While there is some truth in that statement, I have found a home here at National as sappy as that may sound. This plunge that I have taken into the world of academia has been one of my most challenging endeavors to date, and I don’t think I would have been as successful as I have been without a community like this one. In the Chiropractic program, I am just beginning to make an exciting transition into phase II, clinical sciences. This is the point in where we really get to start putting all of the basic science knowledge we’ve acquired to the test. In the Oriental medicine program, I am gearing up to begin seeing patients next trimester.

Before coming to National, more than half of my life had been spent handling and grooming a variety of wild and domestic animals. My undergraduate coursework was focused heavily on philosophy and fine art. So, becoming a chiropractor was never something that I thought I would be doing. It was a motorcycle accident that connected me to this profession. When your livelihood depends on you being able to use your body, having it stop working properly can be terrifying. After the accident, I went in search of someone who could help me get function back, and that person was a National grad. Working with this chiropractor, I found myself becoming more and more interested in the things that could be accomplished with this type of medicine, and before I knew it, I was looking at schools. So I ended up here, completed my Bachelors in Science in December of 2016, and went right into the chiropractic program.

Outside of school, I am a mother of two funny little kids who gobble up the lion’s share of my time. Raising children as a full-time student has its challenges, but they are my reason for pushing myself to complete this program. I want them to grow up with the example that If you truly want something and are willing to put in the effort to get it, lots of things are possible.

I am hoping to write about school/life balance, time management, what it takes to be a dual degree student and much more! If you have any questions feel free to email me at SarahMontesa@student.nuhs.edu