Alice Strawn, a native of Gloucester, has always wanted to work in the medical field and decided to take a local approach to not only gain experience and hands-on training, but also to serve her community.

The summer after her junior year of high school, Strawn attended Rappahannock Community College and became a certified Emergency Medical Technician through the college’s EMT certification program.

Before Strawn took the EMT course, she had to take an Anatomy and Physiology class the summer before.

According to Strawn, the EMT course consisted of a classroom portion and a hands-on skills portion. In the classroom part of the course, she learned about airway management and how to take a patient assessment to determine what the patient is suffering from.

She also learned about various types of medical emergencies, including pharmacology, respiratory, cardiac, diabetic, allergy and obstetric related calls. She also learned about trauma emergencies which include bleeding, tis...