February is Heart Month. 
Meet Sarah Piper, a current student in Algonquin College’s Cardiovascular Technology program.
“I chose to explore a career in heart care because I found it super interesting. I have a bachelor’s degree from University of Ottawa with a major in history and I was an ESL teacher.
After working as a teacher for a few years, I realized that I couldn’t see myself teaching long term. When I decided not to continue with teaching, my parents suggested I follow in my dad’s footsteps and go into healthcare.
Healthcare for him was a second career. I took pre-health and that’s when I started looking into the different fields I could go into. I came across the Cardiovascular Technology program at Algonquin and was drawn to it. I started researching careers in the field, what it entailed, the different paths that would open up later down the line after completing the program and I was sold.
I don’t have much of a science or math background, and I never pictured being in a STEM field, but it challenges me in ways that I never expected.
I have learned so much about the heart, and health in Canada being in this program and I know there is still so much more to learn.
I find myself pushed in new ways, and I am so proud of my progress in the program. In the future, I hope to be able to blend some of my past experiences as an elementary school teacher and a cardiovascular technologist with the goal of working in pediatrics when I graduate in 2027.”
— Sarah Piper, Cardiovascular Technology student
Learn more about the Cardiovascular Technology program at Algonquin College.
27, at Ottawa City Hall to mark 50 years of nursing at Algonquin College. He spoke with students about their experiences and learned more about how many graduates have gone through the nursing program since its inception ~16,000.