Blanca Beltran VanDusen was brought to Arizona when she was five years old from Caborca, Sonora in Mexico. Blanca is a first generation college and high school graduate.
She became interested in the Electroneurodiagnostic Technology program after watching her two year old son Jesse suffer an epileptic seizure lasting nine minutes. The seizure was so severe that it caused damage to part of his occipital lobe.
He had several diagnostic studies and one of them was the Electroencephalogram also known as “EEG” for short. She asked the technician about it. She was fascinated and wanted to learn more about it to help her better understand epilepsy and what was happening to Jesse.
She did research to see who offered a program and found GateWay. While at GateWay she worked for the Disability Resources and Services Department for a bit, and she was involved in the Arizona Epilepsy Foundation Conference held at GateWay in Fall 2017.
During her educational experience, she had the support of her parents, husband and mother-in-law, who she thanks for their guidance during this time.
She currently works in two EEG labs, which were also her clinical sites. She may be done with her associate degree, but she is not stopping yet with school. She wants to start at ASU to pursue her new goal of becoming a neurologist, specializing in epileptology, specifically pediatric neurology.