Darien Student Receives $1,000 Scholarship For EMT Work

DARIEN, CT — Like most high school seniors, Darien High School student Lindsay Smith, 18, must balance her schoolwork with her commitments to outside interests (for her, as a dancer) as well as any time spent with family or friends.

If her pager goes off, however, she must drop everything and rush out the door, jump on an ambulance and help someone in town suffering a medical emergency.

"It's happened before where I'm out at a restaurant with my parents and the [pager] goes off," Smith said, "and I'm like, 'Well, I gotta go,' and you just run out of there."

Smith is a nationally registered emergency medical technician and volunteers with Darien EMS-Post 53, an emergency medical services group in town operated almost exclusively by high school students.

Post 53 is a not-for-profit organization that staffs three ambulances and responds to 911 calls in Darien 24/7. Each year, approximately 20 high school students are selected from a large pool of applicants to be members of Post 53.

While there is a group of highly trained and experienced adult advisors present, students handle most aspects of a call, including driving the ambulance.

Smith spends countless hours at Post 53 each month, including multiple 24-hour first response shifts and 48-hour second response shifts, the latter of which does not require her to be at the building but does necessitate carrying the aforementioned pager around with her.

According to Smith, all the students at Post 53 receive extensive training and undergo a number of exams and classes to ensure they are prepared for anything while out on a call, including broken bones, burn victims and even drug overdoses.

From a scheduling and time management perspective, Smith compares it to taking an additional AP class or playing a high school sport.

"People do have to make a lot of time sacrifices to [Post 53], because it's such an important thing," Smith said. "You can't really go half energy toward it. You really have to give it your all, because people's lives are in your hands."

Smith was recently recognized for her commitment to Post 53 and awarded a $1,000 Claes Nobel Future Female Leader Scholarship by the National Society of High School Scholars.

According to a news release, Smith was one of 10 students selected from a pool of nearly 600 applications to receive the scholarship, which was established to "encourage and empower young women to assume future leadership roles in their higher education, careers and communities, and to become mentors for the young women following in their footsteps."

Smith, who plans to attend the University of Texas at Austin in the fall, said she was ecstatic to receive the scholarship.

"I've been applying to a lot of scholarships," Smith said, "and just to finally be rewarded [with] one was really exciting."

Smith said she wants to pursue a career as a doctor and will likely attend medical school after college.

"My parents, I love them and they've done such a great job saving for undergrad [studies], but any continued education would be on me," Smith said. "So the deal that we've made is anything that I can save through scholarships, they can save and like put aside for medical school later."

Though she is still at the beginning of her journey toward becoming a doctor, she has long been preparing for it.

"I've honestly always been pretty interested in medicine," Smith said. "When I was younger, I was that typical kid who wanted to be a vet, but then I got older and [decided it was] probably not for me. Then when I heard of Post, I thought it sounded so interesting and exactly like what I wanted to do."

Smith has also taken on the role of mentor to younger students this year as they learn what it's like to respond to emergency calls, another factor in her receiving the scholarship. According to Smith, she has helped teach these younger students necessary skills such as bleeding control, putting on slings and using an EpiPen.

"They've been taking their tests over the last month or so," Smith said, "and a lot of them have been doing really well."

Mentoring has reinforced what Smith loves about being an EMT, and though she will be busy with her studies this fall, she may still find ways to use the skills she has learned at Post 53 in the future.

"They do have some EMT opportunities at UT where I'm going, and I've been looking into that," Smith said. "I haven't quite decided yet, but it is a possibility."

According to Smith, getting into Post 53 can be challenging due to the intense vetting process applicants must go through, and a number of students come to realize that working in medicine may not be for them due to the intensity of the job.

"For me, it really just solidified that this is what I want to be doing," Smith said. "I want to be actively helping people in this way."

While she has been on some challenging and frightening calls during her time as an EMT, the most rewarding part of her experience is when she drops a patient off at the hospital and hands their care over to the nurses there.

"I always say, 'I hope you feel better' or 'Get well soon' or 'Thank you, it was really nice meeting you' — that sort of thing," Smith said, "and [patients] always show their appreciation right back to me, which is just so nice, to feel like I've actually made a difference."

Patch has reached out to NSHSS and Darien Public Schools for further information.