Monthly AHEC Scholar Profile - August 2024

My name is Candice Leclerc. I have been married to my husband Jeremy for 7 years. We have a blended family with six kids and two grandkids. We enjoy hiking, fishing, traveling and all things outdoors.  Starting at a really young age, I have loved caring for people.  When my oldest was born he was diagnosed with severe hemophilia a. We had many scary moments where he was near death a couple times at the beginning of his diagnosis. In 2005 when his brother was born, we finally received orders so we could be closer to a Children's Hospital in New Jersey, which was a huge blessing for us.  We learned that our insurance covered a home health nurse to come and treat our son when he had a bleed. What once were multiple hours long ER visits became a call where a nurse came into our home. My son was comfortable and no longer strapped down to start an IV. I was in shock the first time the nurse infused him sitting on my lap. He was just under two years old and held still, no tears. It was amazing and life changing. In NJ we welcomed our daughter who also has hemophilia, but that is a story for another time. 

I attended Lincoln Tech while our family was in NJ obtaining RMA certification and graduating at the top of my class.  Eventually we moved back to SD where I worked at Regional Health (now Monument) and then as a contractor in Health Services for the SDARNG. Finally, I decided it was now or never to finish going back to school to become a nurse. I finished the LPN program at WDT in December 2023 and plan on continuing into the RN program as well. I would love to end up in emergency medicine or pediatric hematology/oncology.