When Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES School to Careers liaisons MaryBeth Napolitano and Sarah Crowe call Mohawk Valley Ambulance Corps Inc. with a request to help local students explore career opportunities, the response is as reliable as when community members call MOVAC for emergency support.
It’s always a “yes.”
“We call them, and they are there for us every time. It’s funny because that’s their line of work. They never tell us ‘No,’” Crowe said. “It’s their orientation toward the community: If you need us, we’re there – whether it’s school or an emergency.”
For MOVAC’s efforts to support local students, Herkimer BOCES is presenting the 2026 Outstanding Community Partner Award to MOVAC during the Herkimer BOCES 2026 Annual Meeting at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 1, at the William E. Busacker Complex in Herkimer.
MOVAC has worked with the Herkimer BOCES School to Careers program on STC events including career days at component districts, job shadowing opportunities, six-month internships through the Advanced Career Immersion Experience (ACIE) program and even helping students gain emergency medical technician certification. MOVAC has also supported the Herkimer BOCES Rescue Heroes Summer Day Camp, which gives local female students interested in first-responder careers the opportunity to explore various career options.
“MOVAC has been our partner since the beginning of School to Careers, and they really support us on every initiative possible – starting from the career awareness where they come in and bring a crew and a rig to our career days – and really at every education level: elementary all the way to high school,” said Napolitano, who is also a work-based learning coordinator. “There’s never a ‘No.’ There’s a ‘We’ll figure it out – we’ll make it happen.’”
That’s why it was so important to Napolitano and Crowe to nominate MOVAC for the award – to recognize MOVAC Chief of Operations Robert Parry, Training Officer Laura Askew and the MOVAC board and employees.
“We felt so passionately about this recognition,” Napolitano said. “Our community is so incredibly lucky to have them. We all should be indebted to them and show as much support as we possibly can.”
Parry said receiving the Herkimer BOCES Outstanding Community Partner Award is very humbling.
“We don’t always do this job for awards and such, but we’re glad to receive it and get that recognition from the community – that we’re making a positive impact in the community,” Parry said. “We don’t do this job for the recognition, but it’s a huge accomplishment when we do get something like this.”
‘Opens their eyes’
MOVAC’s support of STC career exposure events and career exploration activities makes a huge impact, and MOVAC employees are very generous with their time, Napolitano said. The involvement helps connect students to potential careers, she said.
“They’re the pipeline,” she said. “They really are our pipeline.”
Parry said speaking with students lets MOVAC teach students more about their jobs, show some of the things they do and introduce them to new experiences.
“I think it’s a great thing for students to have an understanding more of what we do as a profession. A lot of people just look at it and use the term of ‘ambulance drivers,’ when it’s not really just that,” Parry said. “This kind of opens their eyes up to new things and maybe gets them into a field that can cause them to grow.”
Students find out there is more involved with the work than they might think.
“A lot of them think it’s just an easy thing, but we explain to them all the training that we go through just to get our certifications and schooling and what we do on the day-to-day of being on the ambulance and how big of an impact it is not just to the children, but it’s a huge impact on the community,” Parry said.
Working for MOVAC allows people to help out in the same community where many of the staff grew up, Parry said.
“So it’s kind of like seeing their family and giving back to it,” he said.
‘Inspire these students’
During Rescue Heroes over the past few years, the female students in the program have either visited the MOVAC educational center at the MOVAC facility or MOVAC has brought an ambulance to Herkimer BOCES and allowed students to explore it. Rescue Heroes participants are able to earn CPR and first aid certification during their time with MOVAC.
“The training equipment they have is very realistic and top-notch,” Crowe said. “It makes it hands-on too. It’s not just a presentation. They get to apply it to the training dummies.”
MOVAC goes above and beyond – from attending the Rescue Heroes completion ceremony for students to being very open when talking to students, Crowe said.
“They also will speak to students about their career path and about the work that they do every day, and they speak very passionately about how meaningful it is, how difficult it is, some of the challenges – they are willing to really open up and share with the girls in order to inspire them,” Crowe said. “And I just get inspired listening to them because I can’t believe what they do.”
For students who want to do that type of work, the experience is very impactful, Crowe said.
“Working in career development with students, MaryBeth and I see there are just certain kids who are just so drawn to this field and want to do this and just need a little guidance on how to get going in that career field,” Crowe said. “It’s just a certain type of person – a very special type of person – they’re able to inspire those students.”
‘To help others’
Some students are so interested in the career field that they take a six-month internship with MOVAC through STC’s ACIE program.
“The students love it,” Napolitano said.
MOVAC builds a strong and supportive relationship with the interns, Napolitano said. For the ACIE completion ceremony, STC invites the intern’s mentor, but MOVAC over-delivers, she said.
“They usually bring the whole staff that can make it, and they show up and cheer on the student,” Napolitano said. “It’s awe-inspiring.”
MOVAC has also helped encourage students – and even has sponsored the cost of some – receiving their EMT certification.
“We have many of our former students that became EMTs because of that,” Napolitano said. “And that just allowed them growth from there – it started a foundational piece. Some of them are now working for 911 being dispatchers, they are now our local police officers, they are nurses.”
One student who went through the ACIE internship and was sponsored by MOVAC for EMT certification was Frankfort-Schuyler Class of 2024 graduate Jenna Fazzolari.
Fazzolari is now a second-year, biology pre-med student at SUNY Brockport, and she said MOVAC helped her reach where she is now.
“Starting college as a biology pre-med student was definitely challenging at first, but with time, I found my rhythm. Now, I’m deeply involved in neuroscience research and have the rewarding experience of teaching chemistry labs,” Fazzolari said. “My internship with MOVAC truly solidified my passion for medicine and my desire to help others.”
Parry called Fazzolari’s pre-med status a “huge accomplishment” and said supporting students is about giving them career options. Sponsoring a student to get an EMT certification saves them about $700 and gives them the chance to work with MOVAC after high school, work elsewhere or pursue further education.
“We try to give them an opportunity after they’ve gone through – I think she rode for us like six months – so if it’s something that they truly enjoy and truly like, we try to give them that opportunity and help them,” Parry said. “We’re trying to help them still pursue their career if they enjoy it and give them another option to do the stuff that they enjoy.”
‘A win-win situation’
Like any true partnership, the connection between Herkimer BOCES and MOVAC helps both organizations, Parry and the STC liaisons agreed.
“Their willingness to work with the schools allows them to grow a community of people dedicated to emergency services and first responders, which we of course need,” Crowe said. “They’re growing their talent pipeline. It’s recruitment. I think it’s hard for students to go there and not feel like, ‘Wow, this would be great place for me to start my career.’”
Napolitano said MOVAC’s interactions with students not only introduce students to career opportunities but also help them understand how MOVAC is supporting the community and make them more comfortable with MOVAC in case they ever need to interact with them during an emergency situation.
“It’s a win-win situation,” Napolitano said. “We feel what we can give at our level is that exposure to them. And also allow that opportunity for students, as Sarah always says, ‘You can’t be what you can’t see.’ And we’re giving that opportunity to students to see it, to believe it, to dream it and then ultimately achieve it. And that’s really what we’re about with School to Careers, and that’s what our partners sign up for and what their commitment is.”
Parry said the school interactions also give MOVAC employees the chance to get more involved with the community and help in a different way.
“I’m glad Herkimer BOCES School to Careers is doing these programs and internships,” Parry said. “It is truly amazing that they’re putting people into this profession to see what it’s all about and get them hands-on experience and everything.”
‘Just like a family’
When students of various ages get the chance to interact with MOVAC, they get to witness a diverse group of workers who support each other like a family – and infuse positivity and humor into their days, Napolitano said.
“They embrace each other’s strengths and challenges and truly work as a solid team,” Napolitano said. “We love seeing that. They really immerse us and the students within it.”
MOVAC employees let themselves be vulnerable when talking to students about the mental and emotional challenges of the job.
“It personalizes them,” Crowe said. “Students realize, ‘These are people just like me – like people I know.’ I always say, ‘You can’t be what you can’t see.’ They see men, they see women. They’re working together, supporting each other. I think it’s hard for students to meet them and not think, ‘Wow, this would be a supportive group of people to work with.’”
MOVAC makes a point to let students fully experience the environment there, Parry said.
“They’re included in what we do, so it’s not like they’re just here shadowing – they’re included in all the stuff – but it kind of gives them that mindset of they’re not walking through everything alone in life,” Parry said. “We’re here as a team, we’re going to succeed, we’re going to do all we have to do even on the hardest days and the rough days”
Just like in school, it’s an important message to make sure everyone understands, Parry said.
“You’re not alone. If you’re struggling, somebody’s always going to be there to help you along the way,” he said. “It’s a support system here. It’s just like a family in EMS.”
Parry also said students likely relate to MOVAC employees because there are similarities between working in emergency medical services and going through school.
“I think it’s kind of like school – you’re taking those tests and you’re working your way through school to get accomplishments and graduate at the end of it, and that’s kind of what EMS is like too in a sense,” Parry said. “You join this to want to do something – the challenges are there, and it’s hard and you’ve got to learn, and it’s just like schooling: As long as you put forth an effort and truly endeavor on the project you want to succeed at, you’re going to move forward and have a great career and a great choice.”
Local students, Herkimer BOCES School to Careers staff and MOVAC employees pose together by a MOVAC ambulance during the Herkimer BOCES Rescue Heroes Summer Day Camp. MOVAC is receiving the 2026 Herkimer BOCES Outstanding Community Partner Award.
From left: MOVAC Training Officer Laura Askew and Herkimer BOCES School to Careers liaisons Sarah Crowe and MaryBeth Napolitano sign a contract at MOVAC.
Frankfort-Schuyler Class of 2024 graduate Jenna Fazzolari participates in an internship at MOVAC during high school through the Herkimer BOCES School to Careers Advanced Career Immersion Experience program with her MOVAC mentor Ben Gurtowski, who now works for Herkimer County 911.
Local female students interested in first responder careers tour a MOVAC ambulance during the Herkimer BOCES Rescue Heroes Summer Day Camp.
Students in the Herkimer BOCES Rescue Heroes Summer Day Camp learn CPR and first aid skills while earning certifications through training provided by MOVAC staff.