Who ya gonna call? CERT!

For the last 8 weeks or so, I've been attending weekly two hour classes to become a certified member of our campus' CERT team. Soon after I began here, my supervisor told me he wanted me to go through the free program as all the current housing coordinators went through the program during the summer of 2009. I didn't quite know what to expect from the course and during my weekly Tuesday evening or Saturday morning classes, I have to say I didn't really enjoy myself. Our 8 weeks of classes focused on everything from medical operations, to general disaster preparedness, to search and rescue, triage, psychology of disasters, and terrorism. It wasn't that I didn't learn anything new. Just more that I wasn't mesmorized by the content of the course.

The majority of the individuals in the Saturday morning class were undergraduate students and I believe almost all were freshmen. As an 18 year old, I can tell you my idea of a Saturday morning was sleeping in or taking some aspirin after a Friday night in the fraternity house so I have to give huge props to them for wanting to make a difference in their community. I was committed to attending the Tuesday evening classes instead as it had some older individuals but soon found myself with other work commitments on Tuesday nights and thus, Saturday became my only option.

Today was our final examination and consisted of a practical exam with 26 questions (no, it wasn't graded and yes, we did get a copy of the exam at the beginning of the year) and a simulation where we broke off into teams of 6 and with our CERT gear, navigated three different simulations of search & rescue after an "earthquake," triage after said "earthquake," and cribbing. Sadly, I didn't get to do the triage simulation as I am currently on call and had to go deal with a situation on campus. But hey, that's real life! Nevertheless, I passed with flying colors and graduated today at noon.

As a CERT member, I can now be called upon to assist as a first responder in the event of a campus emergency. Luckily for me, I'm required to do that anyway thanks to my position. I have a fancy new green CERT backpack filled with a CERT helmet, vest, goggles, gloves, a flash light, glow stick, and several different types of bandages to use in the event of an emergency. Maybe I'll start sporting it out just to be safe. Or talk to it as Dora does.

Cheers.