Dallas College

Student Experience: Melissa Metzger, RT(R)(ARRT)

“As a radiologic technologist, the patient always comes first. As an instructor, the student always comes first. I believe it is very important to train future professionals in the importance of ethical patient care and health care delivery.

“After hours and hours of clinical work in the hospitals, the Radiologic Sciences program taught me how to be familiar with taking so many different types of X-rays and sometimes having to think outside the box. I still work for Children’s Medical Center and have had nine years of experience here. 

“All students coming out of this program will be able to position each patient for every type of X-ray, no matter the difficulty of the exam. Some patients may be super tough to hold still or to calm down. You have to use special techniques to help them. Always try to put yourself in each patient’s shoes. They are probably having a harder day than you are.

“I love patient care. Each patient is so different and I love being able to take care of each of them.”  Melissa Metzger earned an associate degree in Radiologic Sciences in May 2007 and started her job at Children’s Medical Center immediately after graduating. She began teaching full-time in the Radiologic Sciences program in the fall of 2016.


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Lupe Ortiz, RRT, NPS

Respiratory Care Practitioner Baylor University Medical Center
“I chose El Centro one, it was closer to home. It was a little more affordable than going to somewhere out of state or somewhere else. Just those two things were, were the main thing, the reason why I chose to go to El Centro. I think El Centro did an excellent job of preparing me for going into the workforce.”
Respiratory Care Program

Zlatko Prijic, RRT

Pulmonary Rehab Coordinator Baylor University Medical Center
“I think I'd recommend El Centro to anybody, and I always do. If someone wants to go into respiratory or wants to learn more about respiratory, I point them in that direction.”
Respiratory Care Program
Margaret Lembcke

Margaret Lembcke

Health Information Associate II, Parkland Health and Hospital System, Dallas and Baylor Medical Center at Irving
“There’s not a thing I don’t use from the information I learned in the Medical Front Office program. The classes did a very good job of teaching skills that we’d really need. We were always learning from people who have worked in the field, not just learned information in a classroom.”
Medical Front Office
Kelly Freeman

Kelly Freeman

Dental Hygiene Student
“What's interesting to me in classes is the precision of radiology, and how you can change things in an X-ray that can affect the whole ballgame. The instruction is great: the books give you the info, and then when you're practicing on Dexter (the mannequin) you get hands-on experience of how things need to be done correctly.”
Dental Hygiene
Melissa Metzger
Melissa Metzger, RT(R)(ARRT)
Senior Radiologic Technologist, Children’s Medical Center Radiologic Sciences faculty
Radiologic Sciences
School of Health Sciences
Updated September 9, 2026