Ahnica Shoemaker: Seizing Every Opportunity
This article was written by Northeast Oregon Area Health Education Center (NEOAHEC). It is the intellectual property of NEOAHEC. This piece of writing in its entirety cannot be altered without explicit permission. NEOAHEC is supported by Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under U77HP03052.
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For Ahnica Shoemaker, an Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) School of Nursing student, being homeschooled didn’t mean that she and her five siblings spent all their time at home. Her family has worked diligently to complement homeschool education with diverse hands-on experiences, including traveling the country to visit educational and historical locations and collaborating with their community to attend local events, such as NEOAHEC’s MedQuest. Since camp, Ahnica has earned her prerequisites for nursing school at Blue Mountain Community College (BMCC) and enrolled at OHSU, and she is currently working as a certified nursing assistant (CNA) for a local hospice organization, a per diem nurse (PRN) at the hospital, and an emergency medical technician (EMT) in the reserve program at the fire department. Ahnica has worked hard to make the most of every opportunity that she’s found along her health career pathway.
Ahnica’s parents, a nurse and a chiropractor, both grew up in the Grande Ronde Valley. Her father attended Western States Chiropractic College and started his own practice in eastern Oregon. Her mother attended the OHSU School of Nursing and has worked as a med/surg nurse and homeschooled her six children using a blend of textbook learning, co-opted curricula, and field trips. Ahnica, who is very close to her family, especially admires her mother, describing her as “the heart of our home.” It’s no surprise that Ahnica attended MedQuest and decided to pursue a career in nursing.
The Shoemaker family frequently went on field trips—visits to the aquarium in Boise, spending the night in a submarine at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), traveling to the Warhawk Air Museum, touring the old Idaho State Penitentiary, seeing Yellowstone National Park, and exploring the rodeo capital of the world in Wyoming. They attended both athletic and church-run summer camps and participated in NEOAHEC programs. Ahnica went to Rural MedQuest in 2019 and Virtual MedQuest in 2020, and in 2024, she returned as a camp counselor, excited to support students. She eagerly anticipates being a counselor again in the future and continuing her involvement with NEOAHEC.
Attending MedQuest offered unexpected benefits for Ahnica, gaining life skills unrelated to health careers. As a teenager, applying to MedQuest was Ahnica’s first chance to create a resume, write a cover letter, and obtain letters of recommendation. According to Ahnica, these experiences helped her later on. She says, “I was a lot more prepared for not only college applications, writing them for MedQuest first, but also with being brave and stepping out of my comfort zone.” The overnight experience at MedQuest helped prepare her for living independently when she started school at BMCC in Pendleton. Even though she was still unsure what exactly she wanted to do after she left MedQuest, she felt that she “was walking away with a lot of great friends and resources in people that [she] could come back and talk to.” And, she learned more about the community she had spent her life in.
At MedQuest, Ahnica met new friends and acquaintances on the health career pathway and has been able to follow their journeys on social media. Not all of them went onto health careers, but quite a few did, and Ahnica was able to use them as inspiration and role models. She has encountered many of her fellow campers in class and in the workplace. One of Ahnica’s first roommates while at BMCC was Emma Lowe, whom she met at camp. Emma had followed her plan from MedQuest to the letter and was well on her way to being a labor and delivery nurse, a field that also interests Ahnica.
After her first year at BMCC, Ahnica focused on earning her EMT and CNA certifications, then began working in hospice, at the fire department, and in the hospital (as a PRN). She plans to focus solely on nursing in the future and is particularly drawn to both hospice and labor and delivery nursing, being drawn to help people at the beginning and ends of their lives. When she was accepted into both nursing and paramedic school simultaneously, she was torn but ultimately chose nursing for its versatility. So far, her nursing school experience has mirrored MedQuest in its exposure to “a whole new world of skills.” Ahnica reflects that MedQuest gives you a taste, “but you don’t get the whole chocolate cake.” Which is exactly what it is for—it gives students a glimpse into the healthcare industry and lets them decide if they want to keep investigating.
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MedQuest’s primary goal is to introduce students to a variety of health careers, but it also offers valuable experience in navigating real-world challenges to better prepare them for their journey.
