ACC Graduate Spotlight: Shiran Shlomo

In June 2014, things seemed to be going well for Shiran Shlomo.

The American Career College-Los Angeles student recently had completed her externship with flying colors and just been hired as a medical assistant.

Then, Shlomo had — as she calls it — “a little life-changing event.”

On Aug. 3, 2014, she and her friends were in a head-on collision with another car along Benedict Canyon Drive in Los Angeles. Seven people were injured in the crash, four critically.

“It was really bad,” Shlomo said. “I flew through the windshield. My best friend broke her spinal cord, her ribs, her arms. She tore her spleen. My other friend had an open fracture on her shoulder.”

The Monday after the crash, her new manager called, asking when she could return to work. Shlomo didn’t know.

“My whole face was stitched up, my legs were stitched up. I had a hole in my forehead from the windshield and I had glass in my head,” she said. “It wasn’t like I was going to heal overnight and just go back in.”

Less than two months later, Shlomo said, she found herself back on the ACC-LA campus in the Career Services office — on crutches and out of work.

And that may be when another little life-changing event occurred. Shlomo was soon introduced to a Kaiser Permanente job recruiter and, after a series of interviews, eventually offered a spot at Kaiser West Los Angeles Medical Center — for twice the pay of her old job.

Shlomo said she loves her new position at Kaiser. She helps check patient vision, conducts pre-op and post-op surveys and stays busy helping handle basic duties for 26 doctors in the ophthalmology department. Shlomo also takes shifts in the orthopedic department, working as a frontline staff member, helping patients get settled in their room and providing doctors with patient’s vital signs prior to procedures like hip or total knee replacements.

“I learned so much at ACC-Los Angeles, especially in the clinical portion of it. It’s a lot better that we practice on each other rather than hot dogs and oranges,” she said, laughing. "My teacher Reina Pena was by far the most amazing teacher I’ve ever had in my life. ACC was amazing. I recommend it to so many people.”

But Shlomo said she's not done with her education and eventually wants to be a registered nurse.

“I want to specialize in trauma but I have a really long way to go,” she said.

Ask anyone at ACC-Los Angeles and they’ll probably say she’s already come pretty far.

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