DAYTON, Ohio — A new program at one Ohio community college is encouraging more diversity in the Emergency Medical Services workforce.

What You Need To Know

  • A new program at Sinclair Community College is helping to encourage more African American high school students to begin EMS careers

  • The program is a collaboration between Sinclair, Trotwood Fire Department and Trotwood-Madison High School.

  • After graduating the program, students can take an exam to become licensed and get a job right away on an ambulance

Inside the EMS lab at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, young minds are being put to the test.

“It’s been good so far," High School Senior Joi Jones said during a recent lab exercise. "It’s a very fun and different experience."

The new program is a collaboration with the Trotwood Fire Department and Trotwood-Madison High School.

“One of our problems within Emergency Medical Services is that we don’t have a lot of African Americans that are represented within the workforce,” said Chuck Sowerbrower, Sinclair Community College EMS Department chair.

The students complete lectures and then do their lab work at the college.

“I see myself being a paramedic after I graduate high school,” Senior Cierra Wolford said.

Wolford has a cousin who is a firefighter and paramedic and has been inspired to go down the same path.

“It’s been really good, actually," Wolford said. "It’s really fun, a lot of hands-on activities. It can be a little challenging, but these teachers here help us out a lot."

Students have been able to learn all about the career and get a jump start on their futures.

“We’ve learned how to give birth, CPR, the different type of equipment EMT uses, and the different prescriptions we use while on the ambulance,” Wolford said.

Once they graduate from the program and take the National EMT exam, they can become state-licensed EMTs and start working as early as mid-May.

“They would be able to work on an ambulance, probably making somewhere in the vicinity of 19 to 22 bucks an hour, working on the ambulance, just with that one certificate,” Sowerbrower said.

“I want to be a neonatal doctor,” Student Mame Fall said.

For some students like Fall, this is their first exposure to the medical field.

“It’s really been helping a lot," she said. "I feel like as I pursue in my dream, it’ll become a little easier."

For others like Wolford, who have their goals set, this type of program is exciting.

“If you’re interested in becoming an EMT, you should pursue your dreams, follow your goals," Wolford said. "It’s really fun."

“Being that it occurring outside of the hospital, anything can happen," Sowerbrower said. "So there is a huge amount of variety. There’s a huge amount of challenges that occur as you’re working as an EMS provider, because it’s always something new."

For now, this new initiative is just focused on students at Trotwood-Madison High School as directors make adjustments to the curriculum.

However, they hope to include more Dayton-area high schools in the future as the program grows.