Hearing the cacophony of blaring sirens and seeing the blinding flash of red and white is not anything abnormal for freshman Annaleigh Deel. 

From a young age, Deel has been surrounded by a medical frenzy and has benefited from a talent for “staying calm in very stressful situations.” Deel talks about a time when her mom was rushed to the emergency room for a medical emergency where she rode in the front of the ambulance. The driver then commented on her calm demeanor, but Deel’s reaction was not surprising to her for a simple reason: she “grew up around it.” 

“I stayed calm like the entire time, until after it happened,” Deel says.

Deel has grown up in a family immersed in medicine and healthcare. With her dad being a nurse director and her mom formerly working in the ER, Deel is familiar with the medical atmosphere.

Deel says her biggest inspiration is her dad, who teaches PALS and ACLS classes. Deel says she is “very privileged to take those classes and see what’s on those tests.” 

Along with the classes her father teaches, she is also in HOSA, a club that provides vast medical and leadership experiences. This club provides countless opportunities for students who desire to work in the medical field. 

“HOSA has been at Davie County High School since the 70’s,” Melissa Sparks, the advisor of HOSA, says. “HOSA is all about introducing students to leadership, education, and giving them those community service opportunities. So anything that we can do to increase the health care of our community, that’s a huge goal.”

Sparks encourages students wishing to pursue any form of medicine to join HOSA. There is an experience for anyone whose passion is to scrub in and scrub out, from anesthesiologists to zoo veterinarians. There is something there, an opportunity awaiting you, a connection waiting to be formed.

“I love being in HOSA,” Deel says. “I think that it’s a great program and a great club to be in, and I love the opportunities it gives me.” One of those opportunities was taking the medical math test this year. Deel says it “blew her mind,” and although she didn’t do well, she considers herself, “privileged to be able to take such an advanced test.”

Deel wishes to pursue anesthesiology, and while growing up around a medical-based family has sparked that interest, other aspects of her life have inspired her to pursue this branch of medicine specifically. 

“My grandfather was recently diagnosed with lung cancer, and he had to have part of his lung removed, and because of all the risks, because he is older, it was such a big deal for him to go under anesthesia,” Deel said. “And I want to make people feel less, you know, intimidated by that.” 

A Juggling Act

Like many trying to pursue medicine, Deel strives for academic perfection. On top of the pre-med preparation, Deel also plays many different instruments: guitar, flute, trumpet, and piano. Deel says that balancing between the two passions is “very hard.”

 “I made some sacrifices,” she says. “Whenever I came to high school, I dropped a lot of things.” 

Despite all this, Deel manages to keep her grades high, calling it a “juggling act.” She is described by her friends as a silly and intelligent individual. When you combine these traits with her talent for staying calm in stressful situations, you get a mediator for any event.

Deel was raised in West Virginia and moved to North Carolina at the age of six. 

“That had a huge impact on me, and it was a huge change, but I kind of adapted quickly and that definitely impacted me because I had to learn how to adapt quickly,” Deel says.

Deel describes her family as “chaotic,” and though she only lives with her mom currently, she sees all five of her siblings and fur babies for the holidays, which is especially hectic.

Even with the mayhem of the holiday season, Deel still never breaks a sweat.

Although there are few things that disturb her peaceful disposition, there is one thing that manages to keep her on her toes: the fear of her own failure.

“I’m very much a perfectionist with a lot of things, so that motivates me a lot to keep going,” Deel says.

Despite the stress of striving for success, Deel continues to push through it all as an intelligent individual with a bright future ahead of her.