REEDS SPRING, Mo. — Juniors and seniors at Reeds Spring High School have a unique opportunity to jumpstart their careers while still in school.

Through the Gibson Technical Center, the EMT program is preparing kids for a future of saving lives. From wound packing to CPR, students receive hands-on training through the EMT program.

Senior Hope Armstrong doesn’t mind the blood, “You have to stick your finger in. You need to find where the blood is coming from, and you need to make it stop”.

Watching Hope and Ella Carpenter work, it’s hard to believe they are only seniors in High School.

Ella knew she wanted to be a part of Gibson Tech’s EMT program from early on, “I talked to Lacey in probably middle school about joining the program. I knew that’s what I wanted to do ever since.”

The EMT Program offers kids high school and college credits. The idea was the brainchild of instructor Lacey Williams.

“From the ground up, I started this program 10 years ago,” says Lacey proudly, “I walked into this room and had not a piece of equipment, just a dream and a vision.”

A decade later, the room is full of the latest and greatest technology to teach her students. So full, they are busting at the seams. They will soon make the move to the new Career Center being built.

Taney County Ambulatory Department’s Chris Strobach is thankful for the program. Now, he is able to recruit kids from school, “This program at Gibson Tech has been invaluable to us. In providing us, not just with EMTs, but high performing EMTs.”

“I’m not training them to be EMTs for life, this is just serving as a foundation into the healthcare field,” says Lacey Williams.

The foundation Lacey is laying, is one Hope and Ella are thankful for, “I feel lucky,” says Hope.

“Yes, same. I feel it has built my confidence a lot too. I don’t feel so insecure about my future,” says Ella with a smile.

For more Back to School content from Daybreak on the Road, visit the page located here as they travel to Strafford on Thursday and Nixa on Friday.