KIRKLAND -- Northwest freshman softball player Sydney Maurer is used to masks.
 
Maurer wears a mask to pitch and dons all the equipment when she's at her secondary position behind the plate. Protective equipment is in her nature.
 
Maurer has worked as an emergency medical technician (EMT) during her summer back in Oregon. Working at Stadium Memorial Hospital she started as a Covid screener then moved into an EMT class which eventually led to her being an EMT.
 
She plans to go back and work each summer as an EMT while moving towards a nursing degree at NU.
 
"Getting the opportunity to become an EMT definitely set in stone where I need to be," said Maurer. "I need to be out in the medical field."
 
Being in Kirkland allows her to see more local hospitals than where she lives in Oregon, providing more opportunities to become a trauma nurse as she strives to become.
 
It wasn't easy being out in the field as an EMT: "Making sure I wear all my personal protective equipment, did exactly what I was told, and limit my contact to people" she explained.
 
Her dad being a paramedic and mom was a dispatcher, she knew from a young age this is a field she enjoys and wanted to pursue.