
Called to Serv
Between Service and Student
While balancing classes, extracurricular activities and the many social opportunities that beckon college students on the weekends, a core group of students finds the time to volunteer at William Cameron Engine Company while pursuing EMT and firefighter certifications. From left, Danielle Kuck ’27, Christopher Oko ’26, Kathryn Wrynn ’26, Olivia Jaye ’26, Matt Otto ’24, William Burson ’26 and Isabel Byrnes ’27.


Bucknellians have always served their community in unique and necessary ways. Now, a group of students is bringing back a decades-old club that prepares the next generation of emergency service responders to provide critical support in communities at Bucknell, in Lewisburg and beyond.
photography by Emily Paine

The solution was simple: start a club of her own. Or, rather, revive a club that has, over the past four decades, and under the banner of different names — Volunteer Services, Bucknell Emergency Services Team, University Emergency Medical Services — been a hub for students who want to help people while preparing for careers in medicine. With the help of Olivia Jaye ’26, a cell biology/biochemistry major from Hopkinton, Mass., Wrynn relaunched a medical services club in 2022. Student Emergency Response Volunteers (SERV) is an education and community outreach organization that gives students hands-on training in EMS, fire and rescue by partnering with Lewisburg’s fire and EMS provider, the William Cameron Engine Company.

Photo of Bucknell Emergency Services Team: Susan Naughton Chong ‘96, P’27
The Bucknell Emergency Services Team, here in 1993, was composed of student volunteeers who collaborated with the William Cameron Engine Company to serve as a campus resource group.



Stoking a Passion



The Competencies of Care



Heeding the Call

Leading
the Way
These Bucknell alumni helped build SERV into what it is today and inspire the next generation of EMS practitioners
George Koenig ’96
“My participation in college EMS was formative for me in many different ways,” says Koenig, who now serves as the medical director of the Trauma Program at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Along with being a medical practitioner, he is also the president of the National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Foundation, an organization that prompts and supports EMS programs on university campuses. “I think the greatest part of what EMS teaches you in college is the framework for how to solve a problem under pressure and work as a team that can effectively communicate. My time in SERV gave me all the tools and life lessons I needed to succeed in my career now.”
“SERV is actually one of the reasons I came to Bucknell,” says Stagnitto, who majored in education with concentrations in management and economics. “I already had an interest in being a career firefighter, but I also wanted to get a good education and some experience under my belt. I had an application into SERV before I even got to campus.” Now a master firefighter and paramedic with 10 years of experience on the job at Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, Stagnitto also uses his education degree to help train the next generation of first responders. “I teach EMS training for both volunteers and career professionals. My education background has definitely been useful because I have to have a teaching degree to be able to teach other firefighters.”
A Flair for
Innovation
Bucknell students use their data expertise to assist volunteer firefighters
photograph by Emily Paine


Alec Sanders ’25 (left) and Donovan Coleman ’26 created a database to facilitate real-time documentation and tracking of vital volunteer firefighter statistics.
That’s when he turned to the Bucknell Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and two of its student consultants. Within five months, Ian Proud, Bucknell’s SBDC engineering innovation manager, Alec Sanders ’25, a computer science major, and Donovan Coleman ’26, a computer science & engineering and management for engineers double-major, had a solution. They created an online tool that serves as a database for Stahlnecker, allowing for real-time documentation and tracking of volunteer firefighter statistics.
The database is collecting data from volunteer fire companies across five local counties — Union, Snyder, Northumberland, Montour and Columbia — and has been designed to be scalable and include data from beyond that five-county region.
“We finally have an accurate account of our first responders,” Stahlnecker says.
Sanders, who extended his SBDC student consultant work through summer 2024, reflected, “It’s been inspirational to work on a project that benefits the community.”