Celebrating first Darrin’s Place Wildland Fire Fighting course grads

Northern’s Continuing and Adult Education programs are amping up outreach into the community

Northern New Mexico College’s Adult Education and Continuing Education programs are branching out, bringing opportunities for obtaining practical skills into the broader community. This summer, Adult Ed teamed up with Darrin’s Place to bring its Wildland Firefighting program to the rehab center’s residents. Twenty students successfully completed the course and obtained their Wildland Firefighting certificates.

Participants spent seven nights with instructor Donald Griego learning various aspects of wildland firefighting, including using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for mapping and tracking fire progression, real-time data collection from drones and satellites for situational awareness, communication systems for coordinating response efforts and predictive modeling to anticipate fire behavior. These technological tools enhance decision-making, improve safety for firefighters and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of firefighting operations.

Completion of the course requires a field day, which was the last day of training for both classes. Students practiced fire shelter deployment and received coaching on how to handle the tools, sharpen them and maintain them. The second class had to adapt, moving their “field day” into the cafeteria due to pouring rain.

Those who successfully completed the course received a wildland firefighting certificate, which makes them eligible to apply to land management agencies for wildland firefighting. All 12 members of the first class were hired by local surrounding agencies and some members of the second class, who completed their training at the end of June, have already found jobs.

“These students are very excited,” said Cecilia Romero, NNMC Director of Continuing & Adult Education. “They loved the class, and told me ‘This gives us hope, giving us a resource and helping us to move on and find a job and do something different with our lives.’ They were very, very grateful.”

The Wildland Firefighting classes are offered through the New Mexico Higher Education Department’s Integrated Education and Training (IET) program. IET couples adult education and literacy services with workforce preparation activities and workforce training. IET courses are designed to provide career pathways for New Mexicans in specific occupations while improving their basic skills, their English language skills, and/or earning their high school equivalency diploma.

Romero plans on offering the Wildland Firefighting classes at Darrin’s Place again this fall. Darrin’s is also considering bringing people who are far enough along in their rehab to welding and CDL classes on the Española campus.

In addition to the outreach to Darrin’s Place, NNMC Continuing Ed is offering classes to Mesa Vista High School, Espanola Valley High, Pojoaque High and Los Alamos High School. The program is also expanding course offerings at Northern’s El Rito Campus, offering CDL training, Tai Chi, adobe construction and an upcoming lineman boot camp.

For more information about Continuing Education classes at Northern, contact Cecilia Romero, at 505-692-3430 or cromero@nnmc.edu. 

Learn more about NNMC’s Adult Education classes and IET Training here.