Sam Tejada: Modern Wellness and Healthcare Solutions

My story, like the stories of so many others, began with the dreams of my parents. While their heritage and culture were deeply rooted in their native Dominican Republic, they made the decision to migrate to America when I was seven months old.

Committed to a better future for their four children, they sacrificed comfort and familiarity to move to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and later, South Florida, to live the American Dream.

I was trained and certified as a lifeguard at age 14, and hired through the Milwaukee public school system as a lifeguard by the time I was fifteen years old. In my senior year of high school, my family relocated to South Florida. One year later, I started my first business, Rescue-101, providing the American Red Cross Lifeguard Training course to teach others to become certified lifeguards, training them about health, safety and crisis prevention so they could effectively react to situations.

It was a satisfying career, but my ultimate goal was to become a firefighter/paramedic, which I did at age 19. And a lot of my brothers and sisters in the fire department ended up working for me at Rescue 101 during their off days. It really excited me to be serving the City of Oakland Park as a firefighter/paramedic, but I was also stoked about providing job opportunities for both trainers and students in my business. It felt good to be helping people on multiple levels. I guess that entrepreneurial spirit has always been a part of me.