18-year-old now the youngest licensed EMT for EMSA in Oklahoma

TULSA, Okla. — An 18-year-old is now the youngest EMT for EMSA in the state of Oklahoma.

Justin Jenkins from Broken Arrow High School is now the youngest licensed EMT EMSA graduate in the state.

He was one of 25 people who graduated from EMSA’s EMT program on Friday.

FOX23 spoke with Jenkins and found out it he is a little surprised about becoming a certified EMT.

He said he was surprised because when people see EMTs, they're usually older than he is. He said he expects things to feel surreal for a while.

Jenkins told FOX23 his father, Juan Jenkins, inspired him to become a first responder. His father was also a police officer when he was growing up.

"Growing up seeing him do that, I always knew I wanted to go in the first response,” he said. “It's an amazing field."

He said he didn't know exactly what role he wanted as a first responder, but he began courses at Tulsa Tech during his senior year in high school to earn his EMT certification.

“When I was going into EMT school, I didn't know what I wanted to do in EMS,” Jenkins said. “I didn't know if I wanted to be a firefighter, I didn't know if I just solely wanted to be a paramedic. After being in EMT school, I fell in love with medicine, and I needed to find a service that was solely medicine."

Chris Young is a Clinical Service Specialist for EMSA. He hopes Jenkins will inspire others his age to become first responders.

"Very exciting, very exciting, it shows a great career path for younger people too, especially straight out of high school,” he said. “He's able to come straight out of high school, go through schooling and come straight to us and have a living wage. It's very exciting to see EMS expand to younger generations also."

Now being a licensed EMT, Jenkins is looking forward to making a difference and saving lives.

"You know, somebody fell and they were having a really bad day, and my smile was able to make their day better,” he said. “That is really the way that I want to help people with saving lives and also just making people happy."

Jenkins said after spending his time at EMSA, he couldn't see himself anywhere else.

According to EMSA, the youngest licensed EMT to graduate before Jenkins was 20 years old.