Aliyya Swaby Photo
Garraty: We want to offer certification to all students.
Tyanna Evans’s first-choice career is police detective. Plan B? Probably firefighting.
Evans was one of 35 Hillhouse High School students at an early session for the Law, Public Safety and Health Academy (LPSH) Thursday morning at the New Haven Regional Fire Training Academy — the first step on the track for careers as cops, firemen, and EMTs.
The city hopes some will return when they get older, to become New Haven firefighters.
LPSH is one of four academies currently at Hillhouse (including the College and Career Readiness Academy being phased out and the arts academy being phased in this year). A total of 72 freshmen are enrolled in the LPSH academy. The city wants to use the program as a way to funnel New Haven students into public safety positions; recruiters have had trouble finding enough New Haveners and people of color for openings on the police force and fire department.
Students heard Thursday from new firefighter recruits from the current Class 59 as well as from department officials, and they took a thorough tour of the training academy and its equipment.
The LPSH academy offers students the option to take different certification classes each year during extended after-school periods, including CPR and emergency medical response. During the day, they can take college classes that allow them to graduate from college earlier, saving money and time, said program coordinator Bill Garraty.
Mayor Toni Harp said she was especially happy to see female students in the room interested in public safety careers. “Females can be firefighters,” she said. “It is a fabulous job.”
The academy “helps young people take a head start toward a career,” she said. “Nobody else in the country has this.”
One student waved Garraty over during a lull in presentations to ask how the after-school certification classes would affect his participation on the football team. Garraty told him that the classes were offered at different times of the year to accommodate students with seasonal responsibilities.
The certification is not a mandatory part of the program, but “it shows you who has a passion for this,” Garraty said. “If you want the certification, you have to stay after school.”
Ultimately as the program “becomes larger, we will be able to offer them throughout the day,” Garraty said. He also wants students from all over the city to be able to participate in the classes and get public safety career training.