Varsha Alladi: Future EMT and Doctor

Figuring out whether a career is the right fit usually means experiencing it firsthand, and for students interested in medicine, that experience becomes even more meaningful when the stakes are real.

For Varsha Alladi, current senior at Mass Academy and aspiring pediatric doctor, that meant training as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) for her Senior Independent Study Project. The exciting, new opportunity was the perfect mix of helping people and gaining early exposure to a field she knows she wants to someday be a part of someday: medicine.

“I thought it would be a great way to get experienced in … real life and dangerous situations,” Alladi explained. “Also, because I do want to go into medicine, I can get a job as an EMT during college, or maybe even this summer, using the training I’m getting now.”

This wasn’t what Alladi originally had planned for her project, however. The Senior Independent Research Project (SISP) is a great way for Mass Academy seniors to explore their interests and try new things outside of their comfort zone, but the limitless options can sometimes make it a daunting task for the seniors to decide what it is that they want to dedicate 100 hours of their time towards. “Honestly, I didn’t even think of [doing] EMT training in the beginning,” Alladi confessed. “I was going to do something like CNA training. But then I realised I wanted to do something more hands-on, and I felt like being a CNA wasn’t necessarily that.”

Being an EMT also offers a realistic look into medicine, placing Alladi in high-pressure environments where she faces many different types of people and works with a team to help patients. Regardless of how fun it is, though, Alladi strongly recommends doing it during the summer rather than during the peak of senior-year activities. “It’s a really intense course … with a lot of different things you have to learn and remember. Otherwise, you could be endangering people.”

According to Alladi, the course itself is divided into two different components. First, there’s the online component, which runs every Tuesday and Thursday from 6 to 10 PM. Then, every alternating Saturday, she goes in person for 8 hours. “Saturdays are the cooler days, because it’s like labs, so you actually learn all the different techniques you need to know. We watch tutorials and the instructors explain how to do it, and then we do it on mannequins. We keep repeating this process for different techniques. That’s how I did my CPR training at the beginning of the course.”

Another major requirement for the course is to be able to lift 125lbs by the end of it. “It’s so that you can lift people onto stretchers if needed,” Alladi clarified. “I’ve been going to the gym here at WPI, and working on my arms and legs. … I learned the proper techniques from the first chapter [and couple of] lectures, so I’m working on the weights. It’s a work in progress.”

Looking ahead, Alladi plans to take the licensure examination once she turns 18 and continue building hands-on experience in medicine through her work as an EMT.