CORNING, N.Y. (WETM) – Earlier today, American Medical Response (AMR) Ambulance in Corning presented the first ever graduating class of Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) from the “Earn While you Learn” program. The ceremony took place at the Hilton Garden Inn hotel from 1 PM to 1:30 PM.

The graduating class consisted of nine students who worked in the classroom and with AMR over the past 10 weeks. Now, these students get to permanently work with the team and make a big difference not just nationwide, but across the entire globe.

The “Earn While You Learn” program started about 4 years ago, but Corning’s program in particular started in response to the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) shortage, which continued throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. This made the program more important than usual.

“It was a program that started about two years before Covid-19 started,” said Mike Addario, Vice President of Operations for AMR’s New York State market. “We started it at our Buffalo Operation at AMR, and we started to address the shortage of EMS providers nationwide. We’ve got probably close to a thousand graduates now nationwide. In fact, in the Northeast region, we have 283 current students.”

AMR Ambulance in Corning is actively recruiting new students for next year’s class. Anyone looking to apply for the “Earn While you Learn” program can do so on the AMR website.