ELKHART, IN—The Indiana Volunteer Firefighter Association and Ivy Tech Community College have partnered to provide free college tuition for volunteer firefighters.
Ivy Tech is providing $250,000 over two years to cover tuition for volunteer firefighters and first responders seeking associate degrees. It’s a program both organizations hope will increase volunteerism in Indiana.
Starting with the 2020 spring semester, all volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel in the state are eligible to apply for the scholarship to take classes at Ivy Tech. Participants can seek associate degrees in any program except general studies and aviation.
“It’s kind of like a G.I. Bill for volunteer firefighters,” said IVFA president Paul Holcomb.
Exactly how many firefighters will be able to take advantage of the scholarship is not yet clear. Most firefighters would likely take one or two classes a semester and many will have credits from previous fire training courses. Based on Ivy Tech’s tuition of about $435 for a three-credit class, the scholarship fund would pay for about 574 three-credit classes.
According to the organization, the IVFA has lost more than 1,400 volunteers since the start of the decade, or about 9% of its membership.
“The point blank to it is there’s an ever-growing decline in volunteer firefighters in our state,” Holcomb said. “We see [the program] as a way to recruit and retain volunteers to keep the volunteer fire service thriving.”
That goal led to a bill in the state legislature, authored by state Rep. Randall Frye, D-southeast Indiana, that sought to establish a scholarship fund for all public safety officers to attend classes at Ivy Tech. That bill died in the Senate, but the IVFA hopes the two-year, $250,000 scholarship program will show the legislature the benefits of further funding.
The IVFA is hoping the focus on education encourages young people to join the volunteer firefighting ranks. By giving young volunteers access to an education, IVFA lobbyist Larry Curl said, they’re more likely to get a career locally and stay involved with their volunteer fire unit.
“We wanted to give them something that would benefit them personally,” Curl said. “Education is always something everybody can use.”
It’s unclear how many firefighters will sign up for courses, as applications are still open, but local departments have expressed interest.
One benefit to local stations will be the training courses Ivy Tech offers, as some stations have found putting on classes for a small number of new volunteers is neither cost-effective nor a good experience for the recruits.
“You don’t want to put on a class for one or two people, you want to get an ambient amount of people in a class so you can train multiple people at one time on the same subject,” Cleveland Township Assistant Fire Chief Mike Graham said.
Cleveland Township’s unit, like many in the area, is made up of paid and volunteer firefighters. Graham said the department has 14 volunteers, but that number spiked when the department started accepting volunteers from outside of Cleveland Township in 2017.
“They have regular jobs, they have a family to support,” Graham said. “To sit there and say ‘I volunteer,’ it’s difficult.”
Graham said he’s had a few of his volunteers ask about the scholarship, including Cole Temple, who has been a volunteer firefighter for about five years, serving with the Osceola department until it merged with Penn Township, then moving to the Cleveland Township station. Temple, 23, said he’s already a certified EMT, but wants to apply for the scholarship to take more paramedic courses.
“I think it’s excellent what they’re doing. I absolutely do,” Temple said. “I think a lot of departments, especially more rural ones out in the country, a lot of these guys have the desire to do it, but not necessarily the means to attend classes for it.”
Firefighters will be able to seek associate degrees in a variety of subject areas, though Ivy Tech department chair for Homeland Security and Public Policy Jon Whitmar said he expects most of the new students to be drawn toward the fire science degree. Whitmar said he’s especially excited about the firefighting tactics class that will be offered at the South Bend and Elkhart campuses, in addition to a new course on arson investigation.
“The firefighting strategy and tactics course is filling faster than I could imagine because of the firefighter grant,” Whitmar said.
Like Cleveland Township, Concord Township’s fire department is composed of 14 volunteers in addition to full-time firefighters. Concord Chief Phil Sumpter said he’s supportive of the scholarship in light of the decline in new volunteers.
“It’s getting harder and harder to recruit,” he said, “with the training required, and people are busy nowadays.”
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