Will Mupeta didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life.
Then he attended a career fair the city of Pittsburgh hosted Downtown. He learned about public safety jobs and wondered whether a career as a firefighter or EMT might be in his future.
That encouraged him to sign up for the Emergency Response Technology Education program at Pittsburgh Public Schools, part of the district’s Career and Technical Education initiative. The program provided him various opportunities, including a chance to join the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police’s student police academy.
“At that point, I didn’t like the police very much,” Mupeta said Friday. “I couldn’t stand them.”
But the academy, Mupeta said, changed his mind.
An officer who offered him a ride home one day talked to him about why he was wary of law enforcement and how a new generation could address such issues.
Now, Mupeta, a senior who splits his time between Westinghouse and Allderdice high schools, knows what he wants to do with his life.
His goals include working as a part-time Pittsburgh EMT while he goes to college, serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and eventually working on the police bureau’s special victims unit.
“This program has helped me grow physically, mentally and emotionally,” Mupeta said of the Emergency Response Technology Program.
A new partnership with The Hear Foundation, announced Friday, looks to strengthen the program.
The foundation was co-founded by activist Leon Ford and Scott Schubert, a former Pittsburgh police chief.
Ford was shot five times during a traffic stop in 2012 when officers mistook him for a crime suspect with a similar name. The incident left Ford paralyzed from the waist down.
The nonprofit focuses on improving public safety through a collaboration between community leaders, residents and police.
Ford told TribLive the organization is looking at “filling gaps” in the school’s existing program. That includes paying for testing, field trips or conferences.
He could not say how much money the nonprofit would provide.
Real-life experience
The initiative — which is open to students at any Pittsburgh Public Schools high school starting in 10th grade — currently has about 30 students, said Angela Mike, executive director of the Technical Education Division.
Students learn about public safety careers and get real-life experience with internships and job shadowing.
An ambulance, fire truck and police car parked inside Westinghouse Academy give them a chance to practice on realistic equipment. They use virtual reality to mimic scenarios they might encounter on the job one day.
Students can even earn certifications — including Pennsylvania Emergency Medical Technician, Basic Life Support and National Incident Management System credentials — while enrolled in the program. They can receive dual-enrollment college credits through the Community College of Allegheny County.
Through the partnership, students will have additional learning experiences, equipment demonstrations and workshops.
Mike, the Technical Education Division head, said The Hear Foundation also will help students learn about social justice.
“It’s easy to go protest. It’s easy to criticize law enforcement,” Ford said. “But what happens when we make an intentional contribution to creating the public safety ecosystem we want to experience?”
Ford said he hopes The Hear Foundation and the school district will help inspire the next generation of police officers, firefighters and medics.
“Our city has been struggling with recruitment within the public safety sector, so this is a proactive approach,” he said.
‘You are going to save lives’
Acting police Chief Jason Lando offered to talk individually with students who might be interested in joining the ranks as officials and students gathered Friday at Westinghouse.
“We need to build our ranks, and I want to build them from within the city,” said Lando, who is taking the helm of a police bureau that has seen its staffing plummet to its lowest levels in two decades.
Lauren Dick is a senior at Allderdice and Westinghouse. At 17, she already secured an EMT certification through the program.
“To have a career lined up for me and to be involved in this program is the best gift to come out of high school with,” she said.
On Friday, she showed officials around the ambulance students use in their training, heaving a bag with about 15 pounds of equipment from the back of the truck.
“You are going to save lives,” Mayor Corey O’Connor told students. “By stepping up at such a young age, you are showing leadership we desperately need in this city.”
