1.  Created and distributed a recruitment poster for Fire and Rescue to hang in every Fire Station in the City of Harrisonburg and County of Rockingham -approximately 30 locations.  (sample poster)

2.  MTC poster hung in every elementary, middle, and high school in Harrisonburg City and Rockingham County - 30 schools.

3.  Host 5th grade students from the city and county each October.  In a typical afternoon, 4 groups of students will come through for a 15 minute presentation/demonstration.  Fire and Rescue students are responsible for leading the presentation.  (photos attached)

4.  In April, 7th grade students from the city and county visit our program.  The format is similar to the 5th grade tours but students are also provided with career pathway information as we feel this is the crucial age where students must 'map' out their schedule.

5.  During high school registration period, our guidance counselor goes out to high school lunch rooms and sets up a display.  Last year, one of her displays was about the Fire and Rescue program.  Two Fire and Rescue graduates accompanied her -in full uniform.

6.  During MTC's Open House, (attended by approximately 300 persons annually), we partner with Harrisonburg and Rockingham County Fire Departments.  The city brings out its "fire safety display" for children and the County provides a fire engine. (photos attached)

7.  In October, 9th and 10th grade students come out before they register for classes.  Our students put on skills demonstrations and answer student questions on Fire and Rescue.  Also, distribute class brochure (attached).

Artifact #88 - Best Practices

We are especially proud that our Fire and Rescue program is one of few in the Commonwealth of Virginia that is a fully-certified program.  Our students can complete the program with at least eight different nationally-recognized, professional certifications.   Our students receive full gear and practice a live burn at the city's training grounds-where temperatures near 800 degrees.  We collaborate with area career firefighters to provide real-world training for our students; in many cases, these firefighters serve as guest lecturers or trainers.

We encourage all of our students to be volunteers in their community and to participate in SkillsUSA as members and competitors at the state and national level.  In the program's short existence, we have had first place winners at the state level and second place winners at the national level.  All of our second year Fire and Rescue students are volunteer fire fighters. 

We extend this professionalism every day into the classroom, which we treat as a fire station.  Students take part in a promotion process and each class has ranking officers and must work through the chain of command to solve everyday problems.  At our graduation ceremony, all MTC Fire and Rescue students attend in their dress blues.

We are a regional center and serve students from both Harrisonburg City and Rockingham County.  This collaboration carries through at MTC where students from many programs work together on projects.  We have had visits from the area's local medi-vac service helicopter that involved our nurses and our criminal justice students.  Each year, we also practice a disaster scenario that involves students from these programs.  We emphasize 21st century skills valued by employers, including critical thinking, team work, and problem-solving in each of these scenarios.

Our instructor is a Lieutenant with the Rockingham County Fire Department and this provides us direct access to county and city facilities.  This also enables him to meet with and get feedback/input from area professionals.  This enables our instructor to work on continuous improvement of his program.  This improvement will be manifested next year as the program moves into a brand new classroom and lab, already designated as Massanutten Technical Center, Fire Station #99.