Cost of adult CPR training for one person at the Central Virginia Chapter of the Red Cross: $41.
Cost of CPR training for University students: $0.
The major discount is the result of a new project created by fourth-year Commerce student Kara Kalasky that, through a partnership between Madison House and Red Cross Central Virginia Chapter, allows University students to train for free to become CPR-certified.
This past summer, Kalasky interned at the Red Cross Central Virginia Chapter, where she realized there wasn't much of a connection between the group and the University. Before the end of the summer, she had come up with a way to establish a connection between the Red Cross and the University, provide a useful program for students and increase health and safety awareness for the younger generation, all at the same time.
"I expect [the program] to turn out well," Kalasky said. "I expect there to be some surprises, but I have faith in the project and I have faith in the people working on it."
The main goal for the program is to reach out to students who normally wouldn't think about getting CPR certification, explained third-year College student Ran Lee, who is one of the CPR instructors for the program.
"We're not targeting the pre-med people because obviously they're going to come out in full force," Lee said. "We're targeting people like the arts groups, student theater groups, a cappella groups, people who normally wouldn't have an interest in CPR, and we're getting a lot of good feedback."
Marketing Director Lindsey Sabol, a fourth-year Commerce student, explained how the program plans to reach out to these people. The marketing team came up with five target markets to focus on for this school year: the artistic community, residence staff, fraternities and sororities, multicultural associations and other Madison House programs.
"A lot of groups are just like, 'Oh, I've never thought about getting CPR-trained -- that's a good idea,'" Sabol said. "You really don't know when you'll need it, and honestly I didn't even think about it before this summer."
Because this is only a pilot program, there are certain limitations: There is only enough funding to train 150 people, so the goal is to get about 30 people from each of the five target markets.
"If all goes well, we hope to expand next year," Kalasky said.
The program is run under a concept called "blended learning," Lee explained. Through this method, students can learn the basics of CPR online by reading tutorials and then, once they have read all the material, come to a session with one of the instructors.
"Blended learning is best for University students who don't have that much time to spare," Lee said.
To make it as convenient as possible, participants can read the online material on their own time and then choose from multiple classes held on Grounds. According to Kalasky, CPR training through the Red Cross is usually composed of a four-hour training session, while blended learning takes significantly less time.
"This is a great opportunity for anybody to come and get CPR trained," Sabol said. "Because you never know when you'll save a life."
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