Women Athletes in STEM Spotlight: Renee Goga, Rower and Emergency Medical Technician

This is the second in a series highlighting Temple Athletics' Women in STEM. For the first click here.

Renee Goga is a senior on Temple's women's rowing team. The Biology major from Red Bank, New Jersey, has two minors in Clinical Health Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience. In addition to those commitments, Goga is also an EMT, or Emergency Medical Technician. EMTs are healthcare workers that provide crucial life-saving medical care to patients on-site and in ambulances on their way to the hospital for more advanced treatment. They are often among the first to arrive at the scene of an emergency.

Goga began her journey as an EMT with Tinton Falls EMS (Emergency Medical Services) North in New Jersey in September 2019 during her senior year of high school at a vocational school. She knew she wanted to go into medicine and jumped at the opportunity to gain hands-on experience at a young age.

"I knew from being a lifeguard that I really liked the first-aid side of things," she recalled. "So, it made sense to get that clinical experience under my belt."

At Tinton Falls, Goga started as a cadet, participating in weekly trainings about medical diagnoses and coming along on rides as an observer.

She earned her EMT certification in January 2020. Soon after, the COVID-19 pandemic created a shortage of EMTs, at which point Goga was asked to help out. Goga rose to the challenge, taking on additional volunteer hours, working three overnight shifts a week.

While Goga is now also an EMT at other organizations, she has maintained her position at Tinton Falls. She was even elected to Second Lieutenant in January 2023, taking on additional responsibilities of training and developing cadets.

When the rower arrived at Temple, a member of the university's EMS reached out to Goga to recruit her. "Being an EMT is a unique thing to do before college," she remarked, emphasizing that her prior experience made her a solid candidate for Temple EMS.

Goga joined Temple EMS as a volunteer in January 2021. She quickly rose through the ranks of responsibility, serving as Quality Assurance Officer until 2022 and as an Associate Director until May 2023, when the group was restructured to be faculty-run.

While the first two experiences were helpful to Goga's development as an EMT, she says she learned the most at Long Branch First Aid & Safety Squad, a New Jersey service that she joined in May 2022. Goga is a paid full-time EMT at this organization.

"At first I was nervous to go from being a volunteer to full-time," she stated, "but I've learned so much from more experienced EMTs."

Goga says that Long Branch has been a life-changing experience. She described the town as uniquely impactful due to the higher rates of calls she has handled there, especially related to drug overdoses and violent crime. At this position, Goga is trained to administer medication and insert advanced airways. Her work with patients has also been involved in court cases in Monmouth County, where the town is located.

"It's been very impactful on my view of the world and of people," she remarked. "It's given me more compassion and empathy."

She also noted that being an EMT has been profound for her view of mental health. "Sometimes, people just need someone to listen to them," she said. "You don't realize the impact you have on someone's life."

Goga's EMT experience impassioned her to work even harder in mental health. She is involved at Temple with Morgan's Message, an organization that aims to erase stigma surrounding mental health in the student-athlete community. She is a campus ambassador for the group in addition to her role as Communications Chair on its executive board.

The student-athlete loves to learn and has even taken on an additional responsibility to do so. Goga joined Temple University's Addiction, Memory and Epigenetics Lab as an undergraduate research assistant in 2023. In this capacity, she helps Dr. Mathieu Wimmer, an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience in the College of Liberal Arts, in studying genetic and social components of addiction.

"This position encompasses everything I'm interested in–it's a mix of my major and minors," she reflected. "I really enjoy it. I've learned so much."

Goga is going to continue learning after she graduates when she attends medical school in a couple of years. "There's never a cap on how much you can learn," she remarked.

In reflecting upon her identity as a woman in STEM, Goga expressed that being in a male-dominated industry has fueled her. "In EMS and in STEM, men are trusted and seen as more experienced. It invalidates the work that women put in," she stated. "But that only makes me want to go into the field more."

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Women Athletes in STEM Spotlight: Renee Goga, Rower and Emergency Medical Technician

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Renee Goga

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