You
We come from all walks of life, and we all have a story.
That's what connects us.
These are the stories that make us CCA.
My name is Steve Elwood, I'm a principal and a volunteer firefighter in Colorado.
While getting ready to become a teacher, my cooperative teacher, he was on the volunteer
fire department.
He said, you're a part of a community.
If you want people to respect who you are in that classroom, you have to show them something
beyond the classroom.
We've never lived anywhere where it was an opportunity, and when we moved to a small
town like Stratton, the fire department was an option.
He started out as a trainee type of thing, and they gave you six months, and apparently
I didn't break anything or hurt anybody, so they said, oh, you can stay.
We have to know who's going to be in charge of what aspect of a rescue, of a scene.
We train on that regularly, so we know whoever that person is, that person's in charge.
They're telling us what we need to do.
We just work from that aspect forward to get the person where they need to be and safe.
These guys and the gals, they're a lot of fun.
They'll get after each other, they'll get after me.
If I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do, they have no trouble letting me know.
If I need something and I let them know I need something, I've got 12 emails or text
messages saying, what can we do when you need us to be there?
It's just that kind of an environment.
The learning process is the learning process.
Human beings don't change how they learn just because they've entered a different environment.
An educated person is a lot less likely to come back.
That's our overall goal.
We heard the president of the company state that last year when he wanted to increase
the number of GEDs that we were producing and the number of vocational certificates
we were producing.
If you work hard, that's the key.
I can guarantee that within a certain amount of time you will have success on the practice
tests.
I will get you in for a GED test and you will have success there as well.
I tell them all the time, at some point my goal for you guys is that I'm going to see
you on the street somewhere and you're going to be in regular clothes, have a regular job,
maybe your family's going to be with you and I'm going to be able to shake your hand.
I care about these guys.
I care about these guys the way I cared about my K-12 students.
If we don't care about what they're going to do after they leave here, there is no point
in this.
We make a tremendous effort to get to everybody that we have contact with, to help them see
what their potential can be, help them recognize that the time that they're here in these green
uniforms is determined by them.
I'm Steve Elwood, I'm a principal and a volunteer firefighter in Colorado and I am CCA.
