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It can safely be said that Gerald Moore has lived the entire Â鶹´«Ã½ experience. First, he was a student in Â鶹´«Ã½'s Respiratory Therapy program in Memphis, TN, this after serving as a licensed practical nurse in the Army Reserves in Texas.

Today, Moore's relationship with Â鶹´«Ã½ is as a Respiratory Therapy instructor at Â鶹´«Ã½ - Memphis, where he just passed his third-year anniversary.

Whether as the teacher or the taught, Moore, found a home with Â鶹´«Ã½ Career College.

"Â鶹´«Ã½ has been great to me," Moore said. "They have people who care about what you're doing, about your growth as a person and professional. They push you to do more than you think you can."

Finding Â鶹´«Ã½ and the Respiratory Therapy program

Moore decided to enter the military straight out of high school, and it was there he began his career in health care, becoming a licensed practical nurse.

"After getting out of the military, I started working toward (becoming a registered nurse)," he said. "But I kept seeing these commercials for Â鶹´«Ã½. I called to see what programs they offered that weren't in the commercial."

Shortly thereafter, he drove to the Memphis campus and enrolled in the Respiratory Therapy program.

"Driving home, I was kind of shocked, actually, that I had signed up and enrolled," he said. "(I chose RT because I) wanted something medical and focused on one thing. A Respiratory Therapist gets to move around and see things around the hospital. They get to communicate with a lot of people. I liked that."

The post-Â鶹´«Ã½ working life

Moore said he quickly found employment after graduation, as a respiratory therapist at .

"I got to work quickly," he said. "And, I found that all the things we did in the clinical setting were right on point."

Part of his duties with his position at Saint Francis was helping teach students who were performing clinical rotations. Other instructors from Â鶹´«Ã½ were coming to the hospital to evaluate students and saw how naturally Moore worked with the young learners.

"It was really more of my peers than me" that led to a teaching position at Â鶹´«Ã½, Moore said, first as a part-time adjunct, then as a full-time instructor. He still works part-time as a staff therapist at Saint Francis but said he enjoys the teaching aspect most.

"I like instructing," he said. "I like helping people do things better. And, I feel as though it's giving back to the profession."

A busy man

When he's not engaged in Respiratory Therapy training at Â鶹´«Ã½ or working at Saint Francis, Moore coaches a little league baseball team. He also is a proud husband to wife Stacie and father of a three-year-old son, Donovan. He said he strives to be a role model to everyone around him.

"I've always been someone who likes to stay busy," he said.