First cohort. First certification. First of many milestones to come.
Yesterday, students in the inaugural cohort of WIN College & Career Academy (WIN CCA) reached the first milestone of many: earning their CPR/BLS certification within a week of our fast-track EMT program. This is an accelerated pathway where, within one semester, students can complete the EMT program, earn a GaDOE Pathway credential, earn a Technical College System of Georgia Technical Certificate of Competency (TCC), and obtain their EMT license.
And they are not simply moving quickly. They are being challenged to perform!
During this pediatric scenario, one student's assignment was to play the frightened mother of an unresponsive child. Her job was to create the emotions, distractions, urgency, and stress that responders may encounter in an actual emergency while her classmates assessed the patient and performed CPR.
She definitely understood the assignment...the simulation became so convincing, and the commotion so realistic, that students and teachers from other classes came to see what was happening.
But one of our favorite moments came in the middle of all that controlled chaos. As the “mother” became increasingly frantic and moved closer to the patient, the student performing CPR never stopped working. She extended an arm to create space, kept the distraught parent back, maintained control of the scene, and continued caring for her patient.
That moment captured exactly what the exercise was designed to teach. Emergency care rarely happens in a quiet room under perfect conditions. Knowing how to perform CPR is essential. But an EMT must also learn to manage the environment around the patient, to communicate, maintain situational awareness, control distractions, work as a team, and continue making good decisions when emotions are high and circumstances are anything but orderly.
Those skills cannot be developed through a textbook alone. They have to be practiced...and that is exactly what these students are doing at WIN College and Career Academy.
A special thank you to Wiregrass Georgia Technical College for its incredible partnership and support of WIN CCA. We are proud of this first milestone and excited for everything still ahead! 🖤💛
