A natural progression to medical school: Jennifer Lanza
Second-year NEOMED student Jennifer Lanza may be fairly early in her journey through the College of Medicine, but she has been saving lives for nearly 10 years.
She first volunteered as an emergency medical technician (EMT) with the City of Hudson EMS in 2017. She continued her service as a volunteer paramedic for Case Western Reserve University as a student, including serving as chief in 2022. Until her M1 year, she served Hudson as a part-time paramedic and paramedic field preceptor and worked part-time as a firefighter and paramedic for the North Randall Fire Department. She continues to work part-time as a firefighter and paramedic for the Valley Fire District.
“My first job in high school was working as a lifeguard,” Lanza shared. “Occasionally, we would need to call EMS for one of our patrons, and I always admired their confidence when they took over patient care. They had a myriad of knowledge and skills that my own first aid and CPR training didn’t come close to.”
She took an EMT course during her first semester of college in 2016 and then began working as a volunteer for the City of Hudson.
“I added jobs at Cedar Point amusement park and Blossom Music Center the following summer,” she said. “The job was an absolute blast, and even on slower days, I never had to question whether my work was making a positive impact on my community. It didn’t take long before that same feeling of wanting to deliver better care came from working with paramedics, so I enrolled in the Cleveland Clinic Akron General Paramedic Program in 2019.”
After a brief hiatus, she returned to CWRU to complete her undergraduate degree. She continued her firefighting education at the University of Akron’s Firefighter II academy, before joining the Valley Fire District and North Randall Fire Department.
So why switch to a career in medicine?
“Like that first step from lifeguard to EMT, and later to paramedic and firefighter, starting medical school doesn’t feel like a change in careers so much as the next step in offering the most that I can to my community,” she said. “I knew I was going to stay in medicine even after my first year of volunteering, so I made the most of balancing work and school while fulfilling the steps to get to NEOMED along the way.”
Caption: Jen Lanza, center, with paramedic colleagues.
As a native of Northeast Ohio with strong ties to the area, NEOMED was a logical choice when Lanza was exploring medical schools.
“NEOMED gave me the impression of being a down-to-earth medical school that stayed true to its roots of serving Northeast Ohio. This is where I am from, and this is where I intend to stay in practice,” Lanza said. “From each band-aid handed out at a rec center in Middleburg Heights, to treating STEMIs and strokes in an ambulance, to hopefully serving at a medical center here in the region after residency, I am working to be of the most use I can to my home.”
Lanza has been part of teams that have resuscitated a cardiac arrest at a concert, stopped a train in the middle of a town for a passenger having an asthma attack, and safely extracted people from overturned vehicles one lane away from interstate traffic. She believes experiences like that have left her equipped with skills necessary for success as a physician.
“I don’t think you can start in public safety and ever have the job really leave you. For those of us who love what we do, a ‘calling’ doesn’t really cover it,” she explained. “It taught me to be calm and cool in any situation. It taught me to be brave and have courage, especially when faced with new skills and situations that require decisive action. It taught me to be resilient, even on a tough day in class or after a bad grade on a quiz, you move forward, learn to be better, and keep the end goal in mind. It teaches you to prepare tenaciously so that when those difficult days come, you know that you are ready.”
While her experience as a paramedic could translate into a career as an ER physician, Lanza is keeping her options open.
“EMS and fire have taught me skills that can translate into a variety of specialties,” she said. “As of now, what I know is so heavily concentrated in emergency medicine that I can’t help but wonder what else I might discover in the coming years.”
Lanza is active in several student groups at NEOMED, and serves as president of the Emergency Medicine Interest Group and Stop the Bleed.
Raised in Parma, Ohio, Lanza still lives in the Greater Cleveland area with her husband, Eric, who she says “diligently supported me in all ways big and small over the years and continues to do so without an ounce of complaint.”
It also helps to have the rest of her family nearby.
“I am very grateful to be staying here where my support system is,” she said. “Through surprise meal drop-offs from mom and car maintenance by dad, my family has surrounded me with the layers of support that are responsible for my successes.”