One woman's story about how 9/11 convinced her to get her Emergency Management degree at the NLC.

When I was in high school I wanted to be in the emergency medical field but I needed the support of the local fire department to get into the training program I wanted.  I could not at that time get the support and I gave up on that dream.  I did finish a medical assisting program and worked in this field for a while, but it was not what I was looking for. 

Fast forward to 9-11-2001...

I was the forewoman on a job in Brooklyn, New York. I was working on a roof top facing downtown Manhattan when I saw the events of this historic day happen right in front of me.  After the second plane hit we knew that it could not have been just an accident and I told my crew to pack up their stuff we were leaving.  My cell phone was the only one on the job that was working after the buildings came down.  We must have made at least 50 calls that morning to families of people on site to let them know that they were ok.  When my union brother and I started to drive home we still had our hardhats and boots on. We wanted to go in and help but we needed to make sure that our families were safe first.  

The next day I came back to work and took an extra ten people on whose jobs were now closed down due to the recent events. With all this help my job ended quickly and I was sent to was to work in buildings around the WTC ground zero site.  The job consisted of testing and repairing all electrical types of systems in contracted buildings. For many months, the air was thick and smoky in downtown Manhattan.  There were companies that were refusing to give employees proper protective equipment— their reasoning was that we were not on the WTC site.  I realized our fight to get respiratory protection was a losing battle when some of the first responders who had proper gear and were on the site were not even wearing it correctly.  Or maybe they thought that the smoke, fumes, and airborne debris couldn't’t hurt anyone past the plywood fence around the site.  The tension on these jobs was always at a maximum and we were always wondering when you would hear the next horn blow or when the wind would shift. When the horn blew it meant that they had found someone or parts of, and needed to get them out.  This was always hard to hear because you knew that with the amount of time that had passed it was unlikely that anyone would be found alive.  As for the wind shifting, it would shift the smell of burning debris and bodies would be stronger than other times. 

As a result of 9/11 and my experiences working around and in the WTC site on and off for the last 9 years, I have decided to follow my dream once again. I joined the local Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) in 2008. When I finished my basic CERT training I soon became active working at points of distribution for flu vaccines; running cooling centers for people who lost power during severe heat waves; and even simple tasks such as getting emergency preparedness education information out to the public .

During this time people have given me job opportunities in the emergency management field.  I have not given these offers much thought as of yet.  I wanted formal training before I would consider a career in this field.  For these reasons, I have come to the National Labor College Emergency Readiness and Response Management Degree program.  Once I finish my degree, I know I will be able to make an even greater contribution to my community.

--Elizabeth J. Fox, Current NLC student in Emergency Readiness and Response Management