By Monique Larkin
By Monique Larkin
No sniveling.
These two little words engraved in bright red slightly hang on a sign office door.
This sign may be a good indicator that the road to success at the Riverside Community College Ben Clark Training Center is not easy.
RCC students who dream of becoming emergency medical technicians, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, firefighters and sheriff deputies all train at the center.
Each of these programs is unique.
“We must decontaminate you,” said one of the squad members as he and the rest of the squad removed the clothing that was worn in a hazardous situation from their fellow squad member.
Robert Ruiz was only drenched in water and not in any kind of hazardous material or real danger.
Alex Gregg, who is the academic coordinator for the firefighter academy, said that he teaches his students everything close to the real thing.
He stood nearby observing his students currently demonstrating how to remove material when the situation is hazardous and a fire fighter’s garments need to be decontaminated.
“If I can teach them to do it here, I hope they will be able to do it out there,” Gregg said. “I help prepare them for what is really going to happen.”
With the same momentum, the students participating in the EMT and paramedic academies are driven with the same force as the fire fighter students.
They undergo the same preparation but only with people who have no heartbeats.
Dummies, that is.
Chuck Tasker is one of the students undergoing the paramedic academy.
He has no regrets.
“It can get stressful,” Tasker said. “This profession keeps you on your toes.”
Becoming one of these students in each of these academies does not take anything more than the prequesites for each, but it will take the willingness to take the “suck.”
As for the sheriff deputy academy, it’s designed to the same degree as the military.
Carlton Allen who is a sergeant for the police academy says that he loves to train young minds.
He has purpose, and he strives like the rest of the instructors at the training center to have his students understand theirs.
“The main idea of securing your future is knowing how to travel in a straight line from goal to goal,” Allen said.
He reflected that it took him a while to finally figure out what he wanted to do for a living.
Allen likes to see dedication from his students in which he refers to as recruits.
“Figure it out early what you actually want to do and the rest is easy. I see too many students making it too hard for themselves,” Allen said.
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