CABOT, Ark. — Since the first day of school arrived, Ryan Collins has found himself hard at work. When he teaches at Cabot High School, he wears a lot of hats, from psychology to health care to emergency preparedness.
Soon there will be another subject he can add to his catalog – and that, is firefighting.
"The reason I'm doing this is to have students on fire for the fire department," he said, smiling. "No pun intended."
Collins spent the last few weeks of his summer break going through the ropes with the Cabot Fire Department, and he learned all about how they do what they do.
Collins hopes that next year, his school will be able to start offering the firefighting class. The goal of the class will be to have students ready to become firefighters as soon as they cross the graduation stage.
"It was like a childhood dream to be a firefighter, and then things kind of went in different directions," Collins explained. "So to be able to live my kind of childhood dream again is pretty cool."
Collins isn't the only one who will have his dreams come true when the firefighter program begins.
Chloe Howard, a junior at Cabot High School is also very excited about the program.
"I was like, 'Mom, I wanna be a firefighter or EMT,'" Howard said.
Howard explained that she's been set on working in the industry since she was a kid. She also added that it's much more than just becoming a firefighter, it's about giving back to the community.
"So whenever I took that step back and I looked at everything they do for your community, it was so easy to be like, 'man, this is what I want to do, this is how I want to give back,'" Howard said.
That excitement hasn't just been unique to her. Other students have already expressed interest in being a part of the class.
The program has also caught the attention of Cabot's Fire Chief.
"She's from here, from this area, and she wants to come and give back to Cabot because Cabot is a great community to live in," Chad Moore, Fire Chief for Cabot, said. "A lot of growth here and potential, especially in the fire service."
Moore said that seeing students ready to step up like Howard is great – but he's not all that surprised by it.
"What I equate it to, similar to teaching," he said. "Teaching is a passion and it's a calling and firefighting is the same, too."
That calling could soon become a reality for future firefighters, all thanks to this first-of-its-kind program in Arkansas.
Collins added that he's excited about it because it's about giving back to the community that raised him and making sure that it's safer in the process.
"It's ok to give up a few hours of my time because one day, that person or that student could be in my house, saving me or my wife or my child, you know what I mean?" Collins said. "So that's why I do that, for sure."
The program is a collaboration between multiple agencies, which include the Cabot School District and Cabot Fire Department, the Fire Academy in Camden, Southern Arkansas University Tech, and the Arkansas Department of Education.
While details are still being worked out, school officials said they expect the class to be two or three years long.