9/11 First Responder Graduates As FDNY EMT In Return To Public Service
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The FDNY inducted their newest EMTs on Tuesday, with the class valedictorian standing apart from the rest beyond her academic prowess.
Among the sea of 170 cadets graduating, only one is a veteran EMT returning as a probie for the second stage of her career.
"It's overwhelming, very emotional," Donna Jaworski said. "I'm just honored to be given another opportunity to come back to this job. I love it."
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The 47-year-old is throwing her white hat back in the ring, returning to the job after 15-year retirement. She had to go through the training again since it's a whole new ballgame.
"Medicine and the world has evolved so much in the last 25 years that we've had to keep up with it," she said. " We have a training for active shooters, which wasn't even a thing when I was 22-years-old."
Jaworski first joined the Emergency Medical Services back in 1993 when it wasn't yet a part of the FDNY, so her 2019 graduation looked a little different. This time, women make up one-third of her graduating class, with the ceremony led for the first time by a female drill instructor.
She was also a first responder on 9/11, digging through the rubble of the Twin Towers alongside her husband and her father who were in attendance at her graduation.
The Long Island native is now a mother of three and an honorary one the rest of Tuesday's 169 inductees.
"They nicknamed me Mamma Donna so I became like the Den mother," she said. "We would always refer to ourselves as brothers and sisters so I never know whether I should say great job brother, great job sister or well done son."
Jaworski's son and teenage daughters cheered her on alongside her husband and father.
