A Partnership That Can Save Lives

When two students at Larkin High School wanted to offer a CPR class for their school, they turned to Elgin Community College.

Each year, more than 350,000 heart attacks or cardiac arrests occur outside of the hospital. CPR or first aid can help improve the chance of survival, but only about 40 percent of people get that help before the professionals arrive.

“I want to make a difference by bringing those statistics down,” says Andrea Benitez-Urbieta, a rising senior at Larkin. “Being certified in CPR is so important. It can help save lives.”

Benitez-Urbieta and her friend Ximena Canizales, also a rising senior, were determined to make a difference.

“In an emergency, a lot of people tend to freak out,” Canizales says. “They don’t know what to do in that moment. And so having that knowledge of CPR, they can save a life that could have been lost.” 

In January 2025, Benitez-Urbieta and Canizales took a two-day Taking Back the Trades Community Healthcare Worker course at ECC, where they earned credentials in CPR, first aid, bloodborne pathogen management, and stop the bleed.

As part of their AVID college-readiness program at Larkin, Benitez-Urbieta and Canizales wanted to help other high school students gain CPR certification too.

Benitez-Urbieta pitched the idea to her teacher, Heather Carey, and set up a meeting with Gina De rosier- Cook, EdD, dean of Workforce Development and Continuing Education at ECC.

“I had briefly met Dr. Cook once at the Taking Back the Trades course I attended at ECC,” Benitez-Urbieta says. “She told us if we ever needed anything at all to reach out to her. I took that very literally.”

After weeks of planning, they held the course at Larkin in May, with instructors including a local chief of police and fire chief. Twenty-four students registered, and, amazingly, all 24 showed up.

“I’m really proud of these two girls,” De rosier- Cook says. “They were very professional. They created a PowerPoint presentation to give to me. One of the things they said was that people who look like them aren’t often given CPR training. And that causes people of minority backgrounds to have a higher instance of not surviving that situation.”

“They really spearheaded this partnership with us, and that’s really monumental for their age,” De rosier- Cook says. “They filled the whole classroom. We had 24 humans in there getting CPR-certified. We did not have one student not show up. That’s amazing for high schoolers.”

ECC offered the Larkin CPR course for free, under the second year of the Illinois Community College Board’s Taking Back the Trades grant. 

The grant funds programs that help juniors and seniors in high school gain industry-recognized credentials including forklift, construction, and culinary certifications; work-based learning such as internships; and health care, manufacturing, and firefighting pre-apprenticeships.

ECC offers Taking Back the Trades programs throughout the summer, as well as on days when high school is closed but college is open. The courses go on students’ transcripts, although they are not credit-bearing. Students get exposure to college as they tour ECC’s facilities, seeing manufacturing training facilities and health-care simulators, including one that gives birth and one that bleeds. 

“We want to change the conversation from if I go to college to when I go to college. We need them to be able to see themselves here and also have these industry-recognized credentials, so they can start on that career,” De rosier- Cook says.

Benitez-Urbieta agrees.

“Hosting and planning this course meant a lot to me. I want to work in the health-care field, specifically as a surgeon. Helping others get certified in CPR is something I’m very proud of,” says Benitez-Urbieta, who will be starting a Larkin High School Healing Hearts Club in partnership with the American Heart Association. 

The two hope to host another CPR certification course in fall, Canizales says.

“We’d love for this course to flourish throughout the years. We don’t want it to be a one-and-done. We truly want to make an impact,” says Canizales, who hopes to pursue a career as a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon.

“I grew up going to clinics and hospitals often, whether it was for me, my siblings, or my mom. I always went, since I am the oldest. Coming from a Hispanic family, I was usually the one translating,” Canizales says.

“Learning from these experiences pushed me to achieve bigger things and help minorities and communities in need,” she says. “I’m so, so grateful that ECC gave us this opportunity.”