Health Information Technology student works through challenges for an easier life

Cortez Whitaker '23 heard a quote one time, “If you do what’s hard, your life will be easy.” He’s unsure of who to attribute it to, but it’s motivated him since. After losing his job during the pandemic, Cortez, a father of three, turned to Anoka Tech to help make his dream of working in health care a reality. 

“After a tremendous amount of research, Anoka Tech kept coming up as the best choice. They have the program that I was looking for [Health Information Technology], along with being accredited by American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)," said Cortez.

One of the fundamental issues I faced was how was I going to pay for college. The coronavirus took away a career that I had been in for a long time. Anoka Tech's financial aid department was able to help me find several programs that have been beneficial to my family and has created an opportunity for me to focus on my degree."

Balancing family, work and school has not been easy. And being a student after years away from the classroom has its own challenges. Cortez knows that the hard parts will be worth it.

"It may be hard to learn something new, but it’ll make things easier in that career and that’s what Anoka Tech has done for me. They threw me into the hard to make it easy in the end.” he said.

I have been away from school for quite a while, and to be honest one of the concerns was how I will be treated going back to school. I was amazed to find how wonderful all the teachers and the staff were. Although all my classes are asynchronous, I feel like I know every one of my instructors, because they make themselves available whenever I need them. I feel like I am excelling because the instructors and the staff have given me the tools to do so."