By Ella Cornett, Class of 2025
This article is a part of a series of student stories of growth curated for the 2025 One Event. If you enjoy this story, please donate and tell us which student’s story inspired you to give.
Clothes, souvenirs, and shards of glass littered the grass next to the highway, leading to the trunk of an SUV. The vehicle had veered across traffic and rolled off the road. A clear picture was sculpted into the car: deformed metal at odd angles, doors ajar, and wheels deeply embedded in the soft ground. The call came over the ambulance radio as a four-person vehicle rollover with one severely injured patient. As we arrived on scene, I saw three people standing along the roadside.
It was my second day of my Summer Experience as an intern with the Yellowstone Emergency Medical Services. Summer Experience is an opportunity to pursue our passions and possible career interests in the real world. Waves of disbelief and anticipation rolled through me as we exited the ambulance. I rounded the corner of the dilapidated car and laid eyes on our patient. I couldn’t believe it was real. A medic instructed me to set up the blood pressure cuff, so I did, carefully manning the monitor as paramedics treated our patient’s injuries. We loaded the patient into our ambulance, ready to meet a helicopter transport team in a neighboring valley. The short time I spent in Yellowstone National Park, unexpectedly altered my trajectory; awakening an unknown, unexplored passion for emergency medicine.
Prior to my Yellowstone adventure, I earned my Wilderness First Aid certification at One Stone. During this learning experience, I fell in love with learning new skills such as how to splint injuries using t-shirts, administer epinephrine to severely allergic patients, and remove barbed hooks with pieces of string. I left that experience yearning to dig deeper and explore what the emergency medical field had to offer. So, with help from my mentor, Ashlee, I reached out to Yellowstone National Park in pursuit of a summer internship with their Search & Rescue and Emergency Medical Services teams.
I was positive the answer would be, “no.” I was seventeen, had no prior medical experience, and had never met with any park personnel. When my visit was confirmed and my housing was set up in response to my message, I was shocked. Two months later, I packed my bags and drove to the park. I spent nine days lowering volunteer patients off the roof of the Old Faithful Lodge, treating real patients while riding along on ambulances, and rappelling down cliff faces to learn safe rope management practices. I was fascinated, excited to be practicing relevant real-world skills. I left Yellowstone curious and desperately craving more.
Before Yellowstone, I was convinced the medical field was not for me. Both of my parents work in healthcare, and I believed that in order to become my own individual, I had to do something completely different. However, my time in Yellowstone was transformative. I felt at home in the back of the ambulance. I was calm, in control, and present. The people I met became family, and the emergencies I responded to solidified my passion. I loved making a visible difference in the world around me by doing life-saving work. Yellowstone gave me a sense of self, a realization that I can seek a medical career in a way that is authentically mine, without sacrificing my individuality. Inspired by my experience, I am spending this semester at the Idaho Medical Academy, becoming an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT).
I am one of the youngest, most inexperienced members of my cohort. Nerves plague my walk to class. Constantly, I remind myself of the transformational experiences that I’ve had at One Stone and in Yellowstone. I remind myself of how blood got on my gloves while responding to the car crash, how I helped the paramedics move our patient, and how I took patient blood sugars while on our way to the helicopter. I remember that I know Ella Cornett better than anyone else in this world. I know that I want to help people, that I love emergency medicine, and that I have every tool I need to successfully complete EMT school. My passion is authentically mine, and I am using it to propel myself towards the future.
