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Josh Karrasch
Psychology
For Josh Karrasch, who is originally from Bradford, Pennsylvania, the ultimate goal in going to UCSC is to help people. Until now, he has done that as a professional paramedic, and he transferred to UCSC from Sacramento City College with plans to eventually become an emergency physician.
“I like working in emergency medicine because you get to help people by solving problems,” he says. “It’s a job with a lot of responsibility, in which you can really see your impact.”
Josh’s desire to be of service led him to enlist in the U.S. Navy, where he served for several years, including a six-month assignment in Kuwait. He worked hard, moved up in the |
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ranks, and made HM2 Hospital Corpsman Petty Officer Second Class. However, he eventually became disenchanted with the service. “I decided that war is not a good thing and does not make you a better a person. A lot of my friends in combat came back changed,” he says.
Now 26, Josh is a full-time student, but that has not stopped him from working as a paramedic, which he does for American Medical Response in Santa Cruz, working weekends and evenings and sometimes taking the 7-7 shift. This quarter he is taking chemistry, calculus, and psychology classes. “It’s hard work, but I’m used to it,” he says.
In addition to work and school, Josh is the coordinator for a new program sponsored by UCSC’s Services for Transfer and Re-entry Students (STARS). Called VETS (Veterans Education Team Support), the program involves specially trained, currently-enrolled veterans advising new veteran students on admissions, financial aid, veterans' educational benefits, and other issues. Josh’s words of encouragement to veterans and other transfer students to UCSC: “This education is achievable, it’s within your grasp, and with persistence, you can get there.”
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