AmeriPro Health & Baconton Community Charter School launches hands-on EMT training program for high school students

BACONTON, Ga. – It’s a big day in Baconton as Baconton Community Charter School has signed a partnership for a new program for students interested in EMS.

The school is partnering with AmeriPro Health to create a pathway program for students interested in first response.

School district grant writer, Wendy Courtney tells us how important a program like this will be to the students.

“The students will be able to have a year’s worth of training, go through clinicals with AmeriPro, and be able to sit for the national registry for EMT,” said Wendy Courtney, district grant writer, BCCS.

For AmeriPro director of operations, Ethan Gray, being able to teach the next generation of first responders is an incredible opportunity…

And… he hopes the program will spark the same passion in students for first response that he has.

“I’ve been in this business for 15 years, and I’m still excited about it. I still like running calls with everybody, and to see the passion these guys have shown to do the same thing, it really kind of made me have an new passion in mentoring them, to where they need to be and want to go,” said Ethan Gray, Director of Operations, AmeriPro Health.

To a student like Mara Foster, the program will help to get their foot in to the door in the field of healthcare.

“With being an EMT or a paramedic, again, it’s a lot of ‘you’re getting a lot of the early experience’ and you’re able to start out right away, and if you’d like to take that EMT profession longer or higher up, you’d be able to do that through college,” said Mara Foster, student, BCCS.

And… for AmeriPro, it’s a chance to mold young minds and pass along their experiences.

“Any time you have anybody new come in to the industry, you get to train them ‘the right way’ as we call it. And, it does help with shortages,” said Gray.

While the program will not start until the next school year, the promise for the next generation of EMTs looks very promising in rural Mitchell county.

The pathway program is going to be the first of it’s kind offered in southwest Georgia.

In a news release from AmeriPro Health, a similar program was started in 2023 in Lamar county.

Brian Roche reporting.

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