Women In STEM Series – Meet Kendal Baranski
Meet Kendal Baranski! Kendal is a sophomore pursuing a nursing major. Growing up her favorite subject was math. She does not remember the exact moment that inspired her to become a nurse. However, her sister who is 10 years older is an ER nurse. Kendal was surrounded by medicine growing up which kind of sparked her inspiration to become a nurse. She knew she did not want to do anything with English, but she also wanted to stick around science. She thought that medicine would be interesting since she knew a lot about it and decided to pursue this path.
To be a Woman in STEM to Kendal is something that is not common and it is fun to be able to hold that responsibility. She gets to play a part in defeating stereotypes and stigmas. She mentioned that intelligence does not lean either way. Her roommate is an engineering major, and Kendal sees how intelligent she is.
Her favorite thing about STEM is the problem-solving aspect, there is a way to do things, but one can reach the goal in many different avenues. With other subjects, there is only one way to do something. In STEM, there are many ways to do things, but you have to be able to think outside the box because anything can go wrong.
In the nursing field, Kendal is fascinated by the fact that she gets to interact with people and build relationships aside from just the career. She also mentioned that she gets to see people at their lowest, where people have to humble themselves and rely on other people for help.
Asking for help can be hard for others but being able to paly a role in making others feel comfortable in their situation is vital to Kendal.
At CCU, her favorite class has been Genetics because there is a lot of problem solving that was involved in this class. She also highlighted how incredible her Genetics professor was because she was so thorough and clear in her explanation. It expanded her knowledge about medicine and the field of Genetics.
Kendal picked her major because she wanted to be in a field where she would be able to help people. She also wanted to be able to use her strengths as best as she could, so she felt that knowing how to care for people like her mom growing up led her to nursing. She also picked a field that is hard to know, especially in STEM. She has the capacity to do nursing and God has given her the gift to enter into the nursing field.
Some challenges that Kendal had to overcome was the fact that applying for nursing was intimidating to her since there were limited spots so it was discouraging and almost made her pick another field that was more reassuring. However, CCU allowed her to have a direct admission program which relieves the stress of having to wait another year before she applies to a nursing school which has been amazing. She also said that students rely on professors to learn more. Unfortunately, she had an unexpected experience with her Human Anatomy and Physiology professor which provided a humbling experience for her. She had to retake this class which caused her to learn so much more about the human body. This experience has showed Kendal the importance of learning. She is also encouraged to become a better teacher to other nurses when she gets the opportunity to teach.
Kendal wants others to know and recognize their gifts. She does not want others to feel the pressure of entering into STEM to get the recognition because all fields are critical to everyday life, and you should find value in your gifts and talents. She also wants others to make sure that whatever you are doing is something you enjoy.
She is able to incorporate her faith because a lot of people go through a lot, and a nurse can start to decrease mentally. A lot of healing comes from emotional stability because people are at the hospital at their lowest and she gets to be a vessel for Christ.
She wants to let her patients know that they are loved, they will be taken care of, and enjoying every moment of her job is important to portray Christ qualities all around her work environment.
She gave the example of if she walked into a patient’s room who had just gone through an amputation with an annoyed attitude, it would not serve the patient as best as she could since they are probably feeling very low and dark. She wants to use her faith and recognize that people are people, and that Jesus went out to the outcasts so who is she to come in with a bad attitude when she could be the one person who can truly care for her patients.
One thing that Kendal wants others to know about her is that she has never had a brain freeze before!
It was such a pleasure to interview Kendal and get to know her story! Stay tuned for more stories!
