Matthew Goeloe practices his form while Hira Dedhia instructs the Adult CPR class at Free College Day. | Photo by Jessica Bibbee
BY RICH REZLER
Communications Manager
Washtenaw Community College faculty member Hira Dedhia has been teaching Adult CPR for decades. He’s never had a student like Matthew Goeloe.
The 12-year-old vigorously pushed on the chest of an adult-sized CPR-AED training manikin, stopping only to blow deep rescue breaths into its lung bags. Around him, a roomful of adults—including his mother, Stacey Goeloe—followed the same instructions as part of the Free College Day course.
“Matthew is the youngest student I’ve had in 30 years of teaching this class at WCC,” Dedhia said.
Of course, Dedhia does encounter plenty of students interested in becoming a nurse in his role as an instructor in the college’s Health Sciences department. In Matthew, he met another.
“I just really want to help people,” Matthew says of his early career goals.
It was Matthew’s new-found interest in the health care field that convinced Stacey to bring her home-schooled son to the WCC campus for the Free College Day event on March 4. The duo had a full day scheduled. After Adult CPR was a “Surgical Technologist 4 a Day!” class, followed by “Arduino Projects,” which demonstrated the ways microcontrollers bring projects to life.
“This was a great way to inspire him to get more interested in the field, and just to get excited about college,” Stacey said. “He’s really excited that he gets to wear a set of scrubs in the surgery technologist class.”
The mother and son were two of the more than 300 people who visited WCC to experience their choice of 24 Free College Day classes covering a wide range of topics; from “Dance for Creativity and Exercise” to “iPhone Photography” to “Cells: The Smallest Living Unit” to “The History of Psychology.”
RELATED: Photo gallery from Free College Day
Based on the feedback received in participant surveys, the classes were a hit. Some examples:
“I was impressed with the knowledge and capability of keeping learners engaged in each of the sessions I attended. I have also found in the past that each session leader has been a great teacher. They know their topic area(s) and love to teach.”
“The class offerings are fantastic. Thank you so much for offering this twice a year.”
“The presentations were all very interesting. In each case they made me want to learn more about the subject.”
Community Television Network covered Free College Day for its FYI program, which airs in Ann Arbor on Community Channel 19 on Comcast cable. An online version of the story can be viewed here.
Free College Day started in 2014 with a four-course offering and has grown incrementally since. Plans are already in the works for the fall Free College Day. Stay tuned!