News

The St. Olaf Emergency Medical Technicians (SOEMT) student organization was awarded two prestigious awards at the 31^st annual National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Foundation (NCEMSF) Conference in Baltimore this spring.

The two awards designated to the St. Olaf EMTs were the HEARTSafe Campus and EMS Ready Campus awards.

The SOEMT is a volunteer, student-run Emergency Medical Services (EMS) organization on campus. In addition to responding to medical emergencies and providing volunteer medical coverage, SOEMTs also offer classes on topics like CPR and first aid, among many more.

By being designated a HEARTSafe Campus, the NCEMSF recognizes SOEMT as a quality campus-based EMS organization that serves as an example of improving overall cardiac arrest care. To receive this recognition, at least 5 percent of the campus must be certified in CPR and AEDs must be available on campus. Out of the nine higher education institutions receiving the award for the first time in 2024, St. Olaf was one of just two liberal arts colleges. 

SOEMT also received a bronze EMS Ready Campus Award, which “recognizes organizations that have embraced the challenges of EMS operations outside of traditional patient-care activities.” Over the past year, SOEMT has taken steps to prepare to respond to major events like multi-casualty incidents (MCI), including working with the Student Government Association to place “Stop The Bleed” kits around campus. 

“For this award, our entire service had to complete extra training in MCI response as well as complete a response plan with on- and off campus partners like Public Safety, the Dean of Students Office, Northfield Police, and Northfield Hospital,” says SOEMT President Harry Olander ’24.

This was the second year that SOEMT participated in the NCEMSF conference, where they also won two awards in 2023. Six executive members of the SOEMTs — Ethan Beltrand ’24, Salah Abdulkarim ’26, Ian DiMundo ’26, Claire Murphy ’25, Chloe Greene ’25, and Harry Olander ’24 — attended the conference as well as alumni Kris Kurtz ’23 and Margaret Dickey ’23. Professor of Biology Kevin Crisp serves as the SOEMT advisor.

“As with last year, my biggest takeaway was how big collegiate EMS is around the country,” Olander says. “There are dozens of other organizations just like ours that are working to create a safer campus community.”

In the past year, SOEMT initiated 24-hour coverage for the first time in service history, and Olander notes that they did not miss a single medical call during the 2023–24 school year.

“A huge goal of ours was to expand our outreach past the St. Olaf Community and help further EMS education in the Northfield community as well,” Olander says. “Although we live in a small and generally safe town, we want to ensure that the community has the tools and skills needed to be prepared for medical emergencies.”

The SOEMT program has grown in many years, with more than thirty students currently volunteering.

“Initially, I wanted to become an EMT to gain more experience with patients and engage with the St. Olaf community,” says Olander. “Although this is still a huge goal for me going forward, I realized that having the knowledge and the skills to keep those around me safe is a huge privilege, responsibility, and something that I am very passionate about. Being an EMT on campus has been something that has brought me lifetime friends and some of the greatest memories, as well as some amazing experiences that I would never have gotten had I not decided to become an EMT.”