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Maria Koenen likes to be busy.

She doesn’t have trouble staying that way, as a senior at Dakota Wesleyan University double majoring in athletic training and biochemistry, applying to medical school, working part-time as an EMT and firefighter and picking up the occasional shift at a hospital in her hometown.

Koenen, who recently finished the interview process for medical schools, knew from a young age that she wanted to work in the medical field.

“I just love it. It’s where I want to be, so it’s really not even work when you really enjoy it,” she said. “Growing up, I just gravitated toward it, and (I’m) just really, really fascinated with the human body and just absolutely love learning everything about it.”

Koenen chose to attend DWU because of the close-knit Mitchell community, the scholarships she received and the relative proximity to her hometown of Rock Valley, Iowa, where she first started working as an EMT after being trained in high school.

At the end of her sophomore year at DWU, Koenen decided she’d like to continue using that training. She applied to work at the Mitchell Fire Division and soon started working as a part-time EMT. It was originally only supposed to be a summer position, Assistant Fire Chief Marius Laursen said, but she has chosen to stay.

About six months ago, she went a step further and attained certifications to become a firefighter, which Assistant Fire Chief Marius Laursen said has been helpful because it allows the department to use her in multiple areas.

“I absolutely love it. It’s an adrenaline rush, and you just never know what to expect,” Koenen said. “And I love the camaraderie with the people that I work with.”

Koenen said that while balancing school, working with the fire department and working shifts every few weeks at her hometown hospital when she goes home to visit family can be overwhelming at times, the department has allowed her to work a flexible schedule to accommodate her other responsibilities.

She’s often called in at especially busy times, and she said she tries to work at least one 24-hour shift per month. Koenen is both the only college student and the youngest person employed with the fire department, and she said that having prior experience was helpful when she first got involved.

“Maria’s really motivated. Great personality, always willing to help out and stuff like that, so she’s been great here,” Laursen said. “Obviously, she has bigger aspirations.”

Koenen said that ideally, after finishing medical school, she’d like to stay in eastern South Dakota or northwest Iowa and practice as a doctor in rural communities. While working with a fire department isn’t her end goal, she said she’d like to stay involved in some capacity, whether that be continuing to run calls or to work as a medical director.

“She really filled a need and continues to do that. She’ll be a big loss when she graduates, or whatever she ends up doing,” Laursen said.

Koenen said that working with the Mitchell Fire Division has been both an adrenaline rush and a look into the reality of the medical field beyond the classroom.

“It’s just a lot of real-life experience,” she said. “I’ve seen the great parts of medicine, but I’ve also seen the ugly sides, the not-so-happy endings. I’m going into it with a realistic expectation of what it’s really going to entail.”

Koenen hopes her experience with both athletic training and working as an emergency responder will work to her advantage as she awaits decisions from prospective medical schools – especially from her first choice, the University of South Dakota – and will make her a well-rounded doctor in the future, having worked with injuries and medical issues in multiple contexts.

“I get to see it all, which is really fun,” she said. “It kind of helps put all the pieces of the puzzle together.”