“With Phlebotomy, you just jump right in. Within the �rst two weeks, you’re sticking each other with needles and drawing blood. Because, what else are you going to do? An orange isn’t goingto work!”

CCSF Phlebotomy Technician and Medical Assistant

Michele Du�y

MICHELE’S BACKGROUND Michele Du�y is from San Francisco. She’s always thought of herself as empathetic. “Even as a little girl, I’d comfort family members when they were sad or sick. I liked making them feel better.” Michele wanted to be a nurse, but struggled academically. “I had ADHD which wasn’t really recognized back then, and I ended up dropping out of school.” At 24, Michele got her GED. She got married and had three kids shortly after. WHAT BROUGHT MICHELE TO CCSF Over the years, Michele’s worked a variety of jobs to support her family, recently it was administrative work at a start-up. “Then I got laid o� ,and I thought, now’s the time to go back to school.” Michele still dreamed of being a nurse, and now that her kids were teenagers, and her husband had a steady job it was feasible. “But at my age I didn’t want to spend four years going to nursing school, so when I discovered the Medical Assisting program at CCSF, it grabbed my attention.” MICHELE’S CCSF EXPERIENCE Michele enrolled at CCSF, but a few months in, she needed brain surgery. After a year of recovery, she came back determined to succeed. “The teachers were all amazing, but some aspects of the program were challenging. I was never great at math, so the medical calculations were hard, but I just had to spend more time with it.” Michele liked hands-on classes best. (Like the Phlebotomy lab, where she got to practice bloodwork.) “You just jump right in. Within two weeks, you’re sticking each other with needles and drawing blood, because, what else are you going to do? An orange isn’t going to work!” While at CCSF, Michele completed two internships: Ward 86 at SF General Hospital and the Phlebotomy Lab at California Paci�c Medical Center (CMPC). “I’m a pretty con�dent person, but I was scared going into Ward 86. I thought ‘Oh my God, I’m not prepared to go into this HIV/AIDS ward where people are dying.’ But, I was absolutely over-prepared, and all the sta� said ‘We love CCSF students. You’re go getters.’ It worked out really well.” WHY CCSF WAS A GOOD CHOICE FOR MICHELE Shortly after graduating, Michele attended a career fair at CCSF. “I was lucky, I got to meet CMPC representatives at the fair. They thought my training and life experience made me a good �t, and a month later I was working in the CMPC Liver Clinic!” Recently, Michele asked to be transferred to the Oncology Department. She’s there now, working as both Medical Assistant and Phlebotomy Technician. “It’s hard emotionally, but the good outweighs the bad. The other day a patient told me, ‘You know it’s been six weeks since my �rst visit, and I couldn’t have done it without you. You made me feel it was okay to be here, no matter what.’ That made me so happy. It’s how I know I’m doing a good job and making a di�erence.

Michele Du�y

Degree:Phlebotomy Technician Certi�cate / Medical Assisting Certi�cate Time Spent at CCSF: 5 Semesters Full Time Link to Program Description: Medical Assisting Certi�cate: https://www.ccsf.edu/dam/ccsf/documents/health_care_technology_documents/MedicalAssisting.pdf Phlebotomy Technician Certi�cate: https://www.ccsf.edu/dam/ccsf/documents/health_care_technology_documents/PhlebotomyTechnician.pdf