Aspire 2 Inspire

Hi, welcome to the Aspire 2 Inspire Podcast.  I will be your host, Bhavya Reddy.  If you're new here, let me tell you a little bit about this podcast.  My friends, Asghar, Anissa, Reshma, Nengi, Kiera, Emma and I interview influential people every episode! Join us every month for an episode full of excitement, lessons, and laughter. Anyways, right into this episode!

When we think of swimming, we think of it as something we do in the summer, when it is hot outside and there is no school. But really swimming is a serious sport, a sport that can be rigorous and requires a lot of motivation. Well, today we are going to interview Ms. Botek, a former competitive swimmer and now a teacher and coach at McDonogh.

Ms. Botek started competitively swimming at the age of seven. She swam for many teams throughout her life including the McDonogh team, the University of Georgia team, and the T2 Aquatics team. Before trying out for the University of Georgia team Ms. Botek completed a routine physical. At this physical she found out that she had a less serious version of Long QT syndrome, a heart arrhythmia that can be life-threatening to athletes.  But she didn’t let this stop her. She continued to accomplish many things in her swimming career that include getting 3rd and 5th in the NCAA Division Women‘s Championships and 2nd and 4th in the Southeastern Conference Championships! Because of her many accomplishments and talent as a swimmer, she then got accepted to try out for the Olympic trials. This is obviously a big honor and something she must be very proud of. She tried out for the Olympics, and she was very close to getting in, but she was not close enough. This obviously was a big let down for her but at Aspire 2 Inspire we always don’t interview the most famous or best people in the world. We also interview influential people who fell down and got back up with a new rhythm in their walk and a great example of that is Ms.Botek.  Now you’re probably wondering what she is doing now? Well, right now she is working at McDonogh, her former high school, where she is teaching 6th grade ELA.

In this episode we interview Dr.Scalea, the chief surgeon at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center. This hospital is the best shock trauma institute which can be found in the heart of Baltimore City. The faculty of this institute include the finest doctors from all over the world. People and their families who have been treated in this center will tell you that they or their loved ones would not have survived if they had been taken anywhere else. Dr. Scalea was acknowledged as the driving force at this very Shock Trauma Center for the last 24 years.  People in the community refer, Dr. Scalea as a walking saint and consider themselves lucky enough to go to Shock Trauma if they get hurt at any time and to be in the safe hands of Dr. Scalea. Even after all his achievements, you can still see him at 2 AM in the morning working in the trauma unit, like the many juniors under training.  Dr. Scalea trained thousands of Air Force men and women of all disciplines, refining trauma skills before deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan. He was also showcased many times in the Reality TV show Shock Trauma: Edge of Life,  which follows doctors and patients at the worldly known Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.