Senior Nelly Gorodetsky spends her Friday nights saving people’s lives. She is a volunteer Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) for the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department.

In addition to riding in ambulances and treating patients, she participates in fundraisers and public events to raise awareness about precautions people can take to avoid injuries. She is also involved in many of the fire department’s efforts to build relations with the community. However, since the fire department in Rockville is volunteer based, much of the community outreach is for the purpose of raising money. Gorodetsky loves volunteering and has learned a lot from her experience as an EMT.

“It is really fun, and strangely, I find it relaxing to go [to the fire department] on a Friday night,” she said.

Gorodetsky decided to join the fire department because she wanted to make a contribution to the community. She is also considering pursuing a career in medicine and thought that volunteering as an EMT would be a good way to accustom herself to the emergency situations that medical professionals face.

“I wanted to really do something meaningful and help others,” she said.

However, volunteering at the fire department is very time consuming and requires her to sacrifice her homework and social time.

As an EMT, Gorodetsky is on scene and treats victims who have been severely injured and seeing these types of injuries on a weekly basis can be harrowing. She has visited many accident scenes but still finds each one very traumatic.

“It doesn’t get any easier, seeing what you see. You just have to follow your instincts and your knowledge from training,” said Gorodetsky.

Gorodetsky takes training courses where she learns first aid and how to respond to different injuries. She also learns about precautions people can take to prevent injury.

She plans to continue volunteering at the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department post-graduation and is mostly looking at colleges in the area so she can do this.

“’[I] get to see interesting things, and experience things no one else can,” she said.