{"id":56586,"date":"2012-03-23T07:58:06","date_gmt":"2012-03-23T11:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=56586"},"modified":"2012-03-27T08:39:02","modified_gmt":"2012-03-27T12:39:02","slug":"preparing-for-the-unexpected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/03\/preparing-for-the-unexpected\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing for the Unexpected"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Patrick<\/a>
Patrick Turek '12 MPA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If a public health emergency occurred, Patrick Turek \u201912 MPA is the type of composed person whom people would feel comfortable turning to for help.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old graduate student in UConn\u2019s nationally recognized master\u2019s in public administration program has already been a frontline emergency service responder for years. Most recently, while meeting the MPA\u2019s internship requirement, Turek created an emergency response plan to address the public health disasters that could result from an anthrax or smallpox bioterrorism attack. The New Britain Health Department obtained the public health emergency preparedness grant that funded Turek\u2019s internship.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmergency medical service is closest to my heart,\u201d says Turek. \u201cIt starts with my roots: My dad\u2019s a firefighter, and my mom\u2019s a nurse. I was touched by the stories they\u2019ve told me about their careers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turek notes that most people might prefer to push concerns about emergency situations out of their minds, even as awareness has been heightened since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are inherent qualities that make a person fit for working in emergency planning and homeland security,\u201d says Turek. \u201cI\u2019ve received extensive training, and I\u2019m prepared to stay calm when most people might not. None of what I do stresses me out. I\u2019ve been presented with the greatest opportunities anyone can ask for. It isn\u2019t work \u2013 I really enjoy this.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Turek enjoys is training new emergency care providers and providing care to people requiring ambulance service. He instructs classes in CPR, first aid, and certification to become both an Emergency Medical Responder (EMR) and an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), and he coordinates the practical exam that EMTs have to pass at the end of their training. During last August\u2019s Hurricane Irene, he also worked a 24-hour shift for New Britain Emergency Medical Services (NBEMS).<\/p>\n

Turek\u2019s involvement in critical caregiving began right after high school, when he passed the EMT certification course at the nonprofit NBEMS Academy, the city\u2019s 911 ambulance provider. Turek worked at NBEMS part time while earning his bachelor\u2019s degree in criminology at Central Connecticut State University. Meanwhile, he learned about UConn\u2019s MPA program.<\/p>\n

\u201cA number of people I work with at NBEMS are or have been enrolled in it, and they encouraged me to enroll,\u201d he says. \u201cThe MPA program\u2019s reputation was absolutely influential.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. News & World Report<\/em> ranks UConn\u2019s MPA in the top 20 percent of programs in the country. It is the only accredited MPA program in Connecticut. Its public finance and budgeting program is ranked seventh in the country.<\/p>\n

Turek\u2019s master\u2019s focus is finance, because his advisors recommended challenging himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized while pursuing my MPA that there are more and different opportunities involving public safety available to people with the master\u2019s degree. I can make a broader impact on a community from a public safety leadership role, especially with a background in finance. I just really like to help people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patrick Turek, a student in the master’s in public administration program, is expanding his role as an emergency service provider and trainer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":56531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[43],"class_list":["post-56586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-12 11:51:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56586"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57367,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56586\/revisions\/57367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/56531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56586"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=56586"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=56586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}