STRASBURG — It started with a handshake between Triplett Tech’s then CTE director Todd Lynn and personnel from Shenandoah County Fire and Rescue Department, who wanted to increase the number of applicants seeking emergency medical technician and firefighter jobs.
“Every year that we do a promotion or a process to hire people, there is hardly anyone who comes in for an application,” said program instructor Capt. Summer Rhuling with the Shenandoah County Fire and Rescue Department. “And then those that do, barely any of them are duly certified as a firefighter and EMT.”
Recalling the days when more than 60 applicants would apply, Rhuling said the application pool was down into the 20s. And those who did apply only held one certification or neither. Shenandoah County requires certification in both firefighting and EMT.
An idea was proposed to offer an emergency medical technician I and firefighter course to county students through Triplett Tech, which offers a diverse lineup of career and technical education courses including automotive, HVAC and culinary arts.
“The idea was to start them as juniors and take whatever is being offered,” Rhuling explained. “We offer one a year, so this year, for example, I’m offering EMT and next year I’ll do fire.”
By starting in their junior year, the students are fully certified to join the fire and rescue department after graduation.
Aidan Compton, then a senior at Mountain View High School in Quicksburg, joined Rhuling’s first EMT course. As a postgraduate, he returned to complete the firefighter portion of the CTE program. Compton, 20, is one of the first graduates of the new program and now works for the Shenandoah County Fire and Rescue Department.
“It all started because one of my friends asked me to volunteer in Conicville,” Compton said of how discovered he liked firefighting. “After that, I fell in love with it and wanted to do more as well as get my certifications.”
Rhuling said the CTE programs have grown substantially. The first year, she had six applications. This year, the program’s third, Rhuling had more than 30 to review.
Shenandoah County students who are interested in CTE programs can tour Triplett Tech in middle school and then return in their freshman and sophomore years of high school.
“In middle school kids come in and they get to tour the facility, as well as take a few minutes in each class to see what Triplett has to offer,” Rhuling said. “When they return in ninth and tenth grade, students can choose the top four [areas] that they’re interested in. We spend a lot longer with them in those groups.”
For Compton, taking a passion he already had and turning it into a career made sense, especially as he spent more time volunteering with what he described as a big family in Conicville.
“There’s not a lot going on down there,” Compton said with a chuckle. “It’s a great place to train, especially as a young first responder.”
Compton, Rhuling said, was born with a servant’s heart, which she noted the first day he walked into the classroom. It was apparent he knew his calling.
“You can tell the ones that are raised by parents that are involved in their kid’s lives,” she said. “His parents were very involved and supportive.”
Looking back on his time at Triplett Tech, Compton said that while he spent many grueling hours studying his textbooks, his favorite times were when he was learning practical skills with his classmates. He learned the importance of team building, the tools needed for extractions, how to properly put on his fire gear, as well as scenarios based on real life.
“It’s like a college course. The textbooks are thick and it’s a lot of work,” Rhuling said. “They have extra time in my class, as well as extra scenarios and practice to get that muscle memory down.”
The most challenging aspect of the courses for Compton, he said, was taking all the information he learned from his textbooks and transitioning it to the exams.
“The tests, especially the EMT test is very difficult,” Rhuling said. “There are oftentimes a lot of people who don’t get past the test, especially as an EMT.”
Many people each year receive their volunteer certifications through the county’s fire academy and EMT class, but the drawback to these programs is the amount of time it takes to complete them.
“Long hours and they’re all volunteer, on your own time. I think the normal family these days are spending more time with their kids, going out, and they don’t have the time to volunteer,” she said. “I think back to the day when we had volunteers out the wahzoo, when businesses would let people leave go out on these calls, and pay them while they were out.”
Those days are long gone.
“One thing I can tell you is how proud I was of these kids in last year’s fire academy,” Rhuling said. “You get hot, sweaty and nasty. Not one time did these kids complain about having to leave and go back to their home schools after spending the morning with me.”
Rhuling said she runs her classroom similar to a fire station. Students clean the floors, mop the bathroom, take out the trash — everything they would do in a station. Her EMT students do the same.
“Some of my students had never swept a floor before,” she said. “So they’re also learning life skills.”
Compton is finishing up his preceptors, an educational tool used to give recent graduates more time to practice before being released to an attendant in charge.
“I’m definitely looking forward to gaining more experience and getting more comfortable,” he said.
Rhuling and Lynn, now Triplett Tech’s principal, agree the school’s firefighting and EMT programs have room to grow to help the local fire department.
“I tell my students that I expect a lot from them,” Rhuling said. “Because I know they can do it. They’re going to push their limits every single day; some days there will be failures and other days they’re going to have the best successes of their life.”
To learn more about Triplett Tech’s CTE offerings, visit https://tt.shenandoah.k12.va.us/en-US.
