Rome High School students in the Fire and EMT Pathway as well as the Healthcare Pathway at the College And Career Academy got a bright, shiny tool to help get some hands-on experience thanks to the generosity of Atrium Health Floyd.
On Tuesday afternoon at the CCA, teachers, administrators, and Atrium Health Floyd officials gathered to officially donate an ambulance to Rome High School. The ambulance features graphics highlighting Rome High School and Atrium Health Floyd as well as a bright color scheme that easily catches the eye.
“I think this is great. We really value our relationship with our school partners and certainly with the Rome City Schools. We actually have a clinic here (at the CCA) and we provide school nurses in all of the schools and athletic trainers,” Atrium Health Floyd President Kurt Stuenkel said. “But it's also nice to have this rolling symbol of our relationship.”
The ambulance will be used for a couple of different pathways at the CCA.
“This is amazing. It not only shows the great partnership that we have with Atrium Health Floyd, but it's also giving our students so many more options to get real life applications to what they're learning in the classroom,” Marores Perry, Director of CTAE and Student Services, said. “So it gives more options to more kids. It's a great thing, and we know it’s going to get a lot of use.”
Having the Healthcare Pathway and the new Fire and EMT Pathway is a great thing for the students, and Stuenkel said he loved that high school students are able to get an earlier introduction into these key fields.
“I think it's very important, because we want to converse with kids as they're considering their careers. That's the whole purpose of the College and Career Academy to introduce potential careers for kids,” he said. “One of the things that we want to do is to help provide options and help let students know that there are lots of health careers that are really fun, meaningful, and exciting.”
Exciting was a great word choice as everyone on hand marveled at the ambulance, looked inside, and fired up the lights and the siren.