By Stacy Driks
Uniondale High School seniors Valentina Goris and Lisbeth Martinez Guerra already have their futures mapped out: Goris plans to become a pediatrician, and Martinez Guerra hopes to serve in law enforcement. Both are taking their first steps toward those goals in the school’s state certified Emergency Medical Technician program, where they are training to become certified EMTs before they graduate.
“I think that it’s an amazing program,” Goris, 17, said. “We don’t just prepare for certification — we also get a sneak peek of what college courses are like, with lectures and labs. I’ve learned so much about patient care and teamwork.”
Both students were hoping to get involved in the program — available only to seniors — ever since they first heard about it as freshmen, they said, and regularly mentioned it to their guidance counselors.
Martinez Guerra says she believes the skills she is learning will serve her well in the future.
“Police officers are first on the scene, and you never know what you’ll face,” she said. “Even the police academy teaches first-responder skills, but this program gives me a head start and extra training I can use anywhere.”
“I think it’s great for not only kids who want to go into medical field,” Goris said. “I know that in our class, not everyone has that passion, but they’re still joining, and they’re able to get that certification. That’s still possible for a volunteer opportunity.”
The course mirrors an adult EMT curriculum, blending classroom lectures with intensive lab sessions in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, airway management, patient transport and trauma care. Students learn to assemble oxygen tanks, insert airway adjuncts — devices used to maintain an open airway — and safely lift and move patients using stretchers and other equipment — skills that prepare them for the state’s written and practical certification exams.
This year’s class includes 19 seniors, and the admission process is highly competitive, with strict requirements. Uniondale’s director of science, Arthur Registre, said that admission is based on students’ grades, attendance and recommendations from guidance counselors, and that they search for students who aren’t afraid to work hard.
“It’s a rigorous course, but we want to see students that have great work ethics,” Registre said.
“Each year we get better and better with the number of kids who are graduating with their license and going out and taking the test,” said Charlie Marfoglio, a retired chemistry teacher who coordinates the program. “It’s really rewarding to see them build confidence and grow.”
The yearlong course is overseen by the Nassau County EMS Academy, and those who complete it are certified as emergency medical technicians.
The high school program began 30 years ago, at Plainview-Old Bethpage, overseen by Marfoglio and Frank Chester, who is now the chief instructor. It has been in Uniondale for almost seven years, and this is Marfoglio’s fifth year as an instructor at Uniondale High.
The program is under the auspices of the Nassau County Vocational Education and Extension Board.
“Some of the students are going to use it as a steppingstone into medical professions — nursing or medicine,” Marfoglio said. “Some will work in the city and have the opportunity to find a job right out of school.”
Students who complete the training and then enroll in a college in New York State can receive six college credits — the equivalent of about two courses — for only $50 instead of paying the regular tuition. That’s made possible through partnerships with institutions such as the Nassau VEEB, as well as Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn.
During a recent demonstration on airway management, students practiced using bag-valve masks and oxygen tanks to ventilate “patients” who weren’t breathing. Working with mannequins and officials from the county EMS Academy, the class applied their training to real-world scenarios.
“There were two different stations,” Goris explained. “We learned how to ventilate patients, how to use the oxygen tank, and how to connect it. We also learned from EMS officers who came in to work with us in small groups. It really showed us what it’s like to respond in a real emergency.”
Goris added that teamwork is a major part of the course. “There’s a lot of group bonding,” she said. “Our professor makes sure we work together in our labs. Overall, that work and team bonding skills we use in real life.”
During the airway and ventilation module, EMT instructor Charlie Marfoglio showed Uniondale High School students how to use a resuscitation mask and how to keep a patient’s airway open — two of many hands-on skills students learn in the program.
Throughout the year, students rotate through a series of hands-on modules, practicing CPR, airway and ventilation techniques, trauma care and patient-lifting exercises under the guidance of certified instructors.