At midnight while most students are sleeping, Senior Nathan Levy is clocking in at the Clinton Fire House, starting his day with a six hour shift as an EMT, before going to a full day of school and baseball practice after.
Levy’s passion for becoming an EMT started while he was on a tour of a friend’s college junior year. Touring Springfield College, he learned about becoming a PA and sat through some of the PA courses while there. After seeing firsthand what becoming a physician’s assistant looked like, he decided that might be a path he wanted to take.
“I didn’t really know what a PA was, after that I kind of found out what I wanted to do,” Levy reflected after his trip to Springfield.
After deciding his major, Levy made the decision to get a head start. “I want to go into the healthcare field, so it was a great way to start out and get some patient experience and learn some things. It’s also a great way to help my local community.” Levy said.
After Levy put some thought into becoming an EMT, he started to take it seriously and signed up for an EMT course out of the Killingworth Ambulence Assosiation. “I went through about 4 months of schooling and then had to pass a lot of tests and exams,” Levy stated. After a long process and dedicating 16 to 20 hours a week to EMT classes, Levy passed all his exams and was ready to help his community.
Levy started taking shifts and responding to calls. He soon realized the struggle of blocking out his emotions when on the call. After losing his first patient and having to witness their family being told, he said, “…it was heartbreaking and really showed me how much I take for granted in life and helped me to be thankful for everything that I have.”
Stephen Kravitz, an EMT in parametric school and one of Nathan mentors, shared how Levy has improved since the begining. “Through Nathan’s training I have observed his ability to remain calm during high stakes emergency situations. The way he carries himself shows that he is prepared to assess, treat and transport patients during emergency situations.”
He also shared how impressive his connection and the level of comfort he provides his patients with is. “Nathan possesses a natural ability to empathize with his patients and has exceptional bedside manner. He is a very professional pre-hospital EMS clinician, and I look forward to watching him grow as a provider,” Kravitz said.
Four to six days a week Levy is working, some of which he goes to baseball practice and then straight to the fire house until six in the morning the next day. Having a twenty four hour job, Levy believes he still has a social life. “I still have a social life. I am still able to hangout with friends and family, and play baseball.” Levy said.
Kravitz reflects on the commitment and willingness Nathan has to work before school. “During Nathan’s training he rode with me overnight between the hours of midnight and 6am and then proceeded to go to school. I admire his dedication and commitment to his community,”said Kravitz.
Being a part of the top ten at Morgan, there is no doubt Levy cares about doing well in school. For him, becoming an EMT wasn’t a reason to start slacking off in school. Levy believes his new job actually helped him as a student, “I think it’s helped me become more responsible with my school work,” Levy said, “I figured out what I can do quickly, what takes me longer and what’s easy.”
Kravitz has seen how Levy balances his academics, social life and job, saying “As stated earlier Nathan is very busy and manages his workload very well. He will start his day at Morgan then go be a student athlete then he comes and works as an EMT overnight all to start over again. His work ethic is second to none and with work ethic like that anything he sets his mind on can be accomplished.”
Levy encourages others to take this step especially if interested in the medical field. “It’s a little tiring and definitely challenging, but if you really want to you could do it,” Levy said.
