Many paths for students in EPS program
From left, Elizabeth Nolan, Mackenzie Mobrey and Porscha Conard, students in the Emergency and Protective Services program at Greene County Career and Technology Center, work with a 911 dispatch simulator.
Breanna Smitley, a senior at Jefferson-Morgan High School, works with fellow student Tristan Weir, a J-M junior, as they run an emergency services drill at Greene County Career and Technology Center. Both students are enrolled in the Emergency and Protective Services Program there.
WAYNESBURG – Currently in its second year at Greene County Career and Technology Center in Waynesburg, the Emergency and Protective Services program is a popular choice for students who opt to pursue a career in a technical service. The options available to students in the program are in fields as varied as law enforcement, emergency dispatching, firefighting and computer information security services.
Porscha Conard, a junior at Carmichaels Area High School, seems to have found her career path as a call-center operator.
Working with fellow students, Elizabeth Nolan and Mackenzie Mobrey, at a bank of computers that simulate emergency calls, Conard said, “I like dispatching. It’s my favorite thing (of what the EPS program offers).”
Each of the students in the morning class at GCCTC gave a different response when asked where they envision the EPS program taking them in life.
Nolan, a sophomore at Jefferson-Morgan, said she sees herself pursuing a career in law enforcement. Mobrey, also a sophomore at Jefferson-Morgan, is looking toward a future as a flight rescue nurse.
The options for students through the individual disciplines that compose the EPS program are seemingly endless. Opportunities exist within the classroom to repel from the ceiling, take simulated target practice and learn advanced lifesaving skills, self-defense and fire and rescue, to name a few.
Current certifications that students will earn through the program are in first aid, automated external defibrillator usage, cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, PATH handcuffing technique and Oleoresin Capsicum aerosol (pepper spray).
Program instructor Adam Wilkinson said he is continuing to work on outside professional credits that will give even more certification options for students in the program in areas such as emergency medical technician, firefighting and baton use.
Wilkinson said there are many components students may not think about when considering a career in emergency services. Physical fitness is one. He has students run through physical training exercises daily, noting that fire gear alone can add 75 pounds to a person.
“You need to live it in here before you learn it (the hard way) out there,” he said, noting some of the technical aspects of an emergency services role, if not performed properly, can cause injury.
It is one of the reasons Wilkinson took his students to tour the Pittsburgh Police and Fire Academy. While there, they had opportunities to give commands to police dogs and go through a simulated search and rescue house. Wilkinson hopes to secure the funding in the future to create a similar house simulation inside his classroom at GCCTC.
Although programs like the EPS program can be quite expensive, Wilkinson said its costs are mostly fixed. Once a piece of equipment is purchased it does not have to be replaced.
Fortunately, the EPS program has been well received by the emergency services community. The Jefferson, Hiller, Adah, Brownsville and Bobtown volunteer fire departments have all contributed equipment to the class, including fire gear and a fire truck. Equipment was also donated by EMS Southwest Ambulance Services and the Southwest Regional Medical Center.
The 911 dispatch center simulator that has helped Conard find her future career path was purchased through a $22,500 grant from the Greene County Memorial Hospital Foundation. The Greene County Community Foundation has kicked in $1,475 to the fledgling EPS program.
For Wilkinson, being hired to teach the classes was the perfect fit. He comes from a firefighting background. His father, T.J. Wilkinson, is the fire chief of the Stockdale Volunteer Fire Department, and Wilkinson is the assistant chief after starting as a junior fireman in high school.
“After high school, I was working on a teaching degree at California University but it was at a time when they made some changes to the program and I ended up teaching preschool-age kids,” Wilkinson said. He soon decided that wasn’t where he wanted to be. After working for several years in industry as a safety specialist, he was faced with a choice of moving to Ohio or finding work closer to home. It was then the opportunity to instruct the new program at the career and technology center presented itself.
“I’d just built a house and I was getting married in a month when a friend called and told me they were looking for somebody. I called and talked to Karen Plugh (GCCTC director) and I was hired. I got the best of both worlds out of it,” Wilkinson said, noting he gets to “teach firefighting.”
With more than 30 students enrolled currently, Wilkinson seems pleased with how things have progressed. “Within three years, this program will be what it should be.”