Local student interns at Spa City fire dept.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Julie Stuart wanted to learn something new.
She’s a junior at Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs, and it’s a requirement for her and her classmates to intern. Students interned at many places, including local bakeries, radio stations and colleges, and as far away as the United Kingdom.
Stuart chose Saratoga Springs Fire Department, shadowing for two weeks with EMTs.
Stuart wanted to do something that could potentially put her in a stressful situation, which appealed to her.
“I’ve never experienced working with any kind of medicine, so I wanted to see if maybe that was the field that I was interested in,” said Stuart. “It was more of a learning experience than a passion to begin with it, which I found valuable.”
The internship began Feb. 26 and concludes Friday, March 2.
“She’s willing to learn. She jumps right in, helps out with chores, cleaning dishes and on calls, she steps right up,” said Corey Helwig, who has worked two shifts with Stuart. “She’s probably one of the better interns we’ve had. It’s not just going through the motions. She actually wants to learn about what’s going on.”
The day begins at 8 a.m., concluding at 2 p.m.
“I get to talk to the people who — this is their life, this is what they do. And that in itself is valuable even if I’m not necessarily on a call or watching a medical procedure,” said Stuart. “But on the days when they do get something really good, like Wednesday, we had a lot of calls, and a lot of very interesting calls. I find that even though I don’t have a medical background to know everything that’s going on, I try to ask a lot of questions and they’ve been very good about making the information accessible to me as a young student.”
Stuart, just like her classmates, researched various professional fields for a significant portion of the year. The process included exploring individual strengths and interests, interviewing professionals in their chosen field and securing and completing an internship.
The assignment ends with a presentation in midMarch by all the students.
“I’m excited to condense the information that I learned in a way that is accessible to everybody to understand,” said Stuart. “I’m excited because maybe that will help me understand what I learned better by doing this presentation.”
Stuart learned plenty during her internship, and even if she doesn’t become a paramedic, she learned invaluable lessons.
“There’s still aspects of this which I would like to shape in my future career such as a teamwork,” said Stuart. “The fire department, I found, has an amazing capacity of working together, almost like reading each other’s minds in the way they have faith for each other in what to do in hard situations. I think that’s very important to any business in whatever career I do decide to go into.”
Helwig agreed with the vital role teamwork plays in the fire department.
“It’s definitely important. Many hands make light work,” said Helwig. “But also we get some stressful calls, and good teamwork gives you something to rely on.”