Throughout the week of Nov. 10 to Nov. 14, the Whitman College First Responders (WCFR) participated in Collegiate EMS week started by the National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Foundation (NCEMSF) to improve outreach between the students and First Responders.
The student organization taught sidewalk CPR and Stop-The-Bleed trainings, provided supplies for students to build their own first aid kits and took vitals from participating students.
The main goal of WCFR is to make healthcare, but emergency care specifically, more accessible for students and close the gap for students in terms of health care.
“We’re raising awareness for who we are and what we do on campus,” WCFR Director of Operations Xeni Laliotis said. “There’s definitely still people who don’t know what we do and it’s important they’re aware that they have access to … medical care if they need it.”
The responders also want to expand membership so more people can join and engage with their training. Enrollment re-opens at the beginning of the fall 2026 semester by attending a general meeting and then submitting an application.
Aside from teaching first aid classes, WCFR also hosts student training to control bleeding, including tourniquets and wound packing, along with First Aid and Basic Life Support (BLS) training, which students can use to help them get CPR and First Aid certified.
“We’re working on expanding our list of other classes that we offer just to expand the Whitman community’s ability to respond to emergencies on campus,” WCFR Director Evan Wendel said.
Despite the high number of collegiate EMS groups on the east coast, the club is one of the first in Washington State, and joins a smaller crew of west coast groups. In most cases, this disproportionate rate tends to be from the laws allowing people to respond as an EMT; in the Eastern US most laws are less restrictive than the West and make it easier for individuals to respond as EMTs. In Washington, people have to create an EMS organization, which involves more stringent rules and regulations.
“We’re just a little bit more limited in what we can do,” Wendel said. “So if we respond to anything that requires administration of medications, we’re going to stabilize the patient as best as possible but then call 911. And we have a very good and well understood idea of where our scope ends and what calls warrant in this activation.”
As part of Collegiate EMS Week, WCFR collaborated with the Tanzania Rural Health Movement to raise funds for their projects. Like the first responders at Whitman, the group in Tanzania is run by volunteers and does their own training to improve health services in Mwanza, Tanzania. The WCFRs raised more than $700 to send to the non-profit organization from donations at their on-campus events.
“We decided to collaborate with them and hopefully just throw this as a connection because they’re a super great organization,” Wendel said. “And it’s a great way to connect with other EMS systems and learn about other EMS systems as well.”
The student group has also collaborated with other student groups on campus, like CPR classes organized with the Whitman Events Board (WEB). The CPR classes offer free instruction and the online American Heart Association (AHA) certification, which would be $40 outside of the WCFR class. So far, the organization has provided instruction and classes to campus security and climbing staff and will soon provide BLS classes to the Welty Health Center. This way students and professionals on campus receive free instruction and training.
“I hope students know about the club and feel like they can feel safe to call us and engage and learn more through our external training,” WCFR Community Officer Madeleina Shear said.
The Whitman College First Responders help campus security when any calls are made that require medical assistance outside of Health Center hours, but also work with the community to give medical training and other health resources, expanding their reach as the club grows.
