Health Services: Massage Therapist
Health Services
Jason Foranda: Massage Therapist
By Mike Yoshiura
Inspiration can be found anywhere and sometimes it comes in unexpected ways. For Jason Foranda, it came in the form of a high school elective class. Although he was more of a music and computer kind of guy, he took a chance in his senior year and registered for a health occupation class.
As part of a class requirement, Jason volunteered after school at Queen’s Medical Center. For five months, he spent six hours a week transferring patients around the hospital and assisting physical therapists in their daily duties.
“I didn’t know what to expect when I signed up for the class,” Jason recalls. “I looked at it as an opportunity to give back to people in need, but what I took from that experience was worth far more than what I put into it. After I took the health occupation class, I knew I wanted to be in the health services field. Taking care of people gave me a lot of gratification.”
After high school, Jason entered the physical therapy program at Kapi‘olani Community College (KCC). “I’ve always enjoyed helping people,” he says. “After volunteering at the hospital, I was convinced that I could do that kind of work for the rest of my life.”
It wasn’t until his third year in the physical therapy program that the coursework caught up with him. “It was too stressful for me,” Jason says. “It got to the point where I was taking the stress home, and it took a toll on my personal life.”
That was when he decided to switch over to KCC’s massage therapy program. Luckily, Jason didn’t have to start from scratch. Most of the prerequisites for the two programs were transferable.
“The massage therapy program didn’t have as many requirements and the classes weren’t as intense,” he says. “I was a lot happier person after I made the switch.”
Jason graduated from KCC in 2006, and today he is a massage therapist at Serenity Spa Hawai‘i at the Outrigger Reef on the Beach.
“I’m happy because I’m still in the health services field, and I make my clients feel better,” he says. “Plus, I like having a job where I can go home at the end of the day and it’s my turn to relax.”