Christopher J. Nowak is a Senior at Southern Utah University, and has been working hard for the past five months earning his Emergency Medical Technician (E.M.T.) certification through Southwest Applied Technology College so that when he is called upon to assist someone in need he will have the skills to be ready.  Chris saw the need in the community for certified E.M.T. personnel and decided this was where he could best serve his fellow neighbor.  

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Being a student in the Southern Utah University's Aviation program, the idea to receive the E.M.T. certification had several intentions with it.  First, all students at SUU are required to complete an EDGE project as part of their degree plan for graduation.  Secondly, being a future Aero-Med helicopter pilot, Chris thought it best to have these skills for that career.  Finally, Chris can always use this training as another path towards a career in Emergency Medicine if the situation were to arise.  With the training, Chris is able to respond to individuals that are requesting Emergency Medical treatment.  Of course he would have to be apart of an agency that performs these tasks, he cannot self respond to scenes.  There might be those one or two accidental moments where Chris happens to come upon a person in need, and then his skills would definitely need to be utilized, but for the majority of the time, he would have to be apart of a medical service.  

 

The EDGE Program from SUU is a way for students to move their education from the classroom to real world scenarios.  Sometimes this means that nursing students go out to provide certain health classes to the community.  Other situations may take Performing Arts students to elementary schools to show them how they can create a production.  In Chris' situation, he decided to take his passion for helping his community and combine it with the future job he wants to be in.  Now Chris will be a more effective employee for any emergency medical service he works for. 

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Through all of the tough days of training, Chris says he feels very qualified to assist someone in need.  He hopes that he never has to use these skills, because that would mean someone else is having a bad day, but he would be very prepared if that time comes.  

 

You can contact Chris to ask any questions by emailing him at christopher.nowak@ymail.com or looking him up at https://christophernowak.wixsite.com/edgeproject 

 

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