The next generation: GLOW With Your Hands looks to future health care

Courtesy of Dan Folts dfolts@livingstonnews.com Jan 21, 2026

Originally appeared in The Daily News here

DANSVILLE— Ever since Dansville senior Bryce Ludlow was younger, he’s always wanted to be involved in firefighting and EMS.

“Little kids, they look at fire trucks and they’re like, ‘I want to be a firefighter.’ But they never end up being that,” said Ludlow. “I just pursued it.”

Ludlow spoke in front of an audience gathered at Noyes Memorial Hospital in Dansville to announce the fourth annual “GLOW With Your Hands: Healthcare” event, which will be held March 20 at Genesee Community College in Batavia.

Event Co-Chairs Karyn Winters, director of the Genesee County Business Education Alliance, and Angela Grouse, director of education to employment initiatives at the Livingston County Area Chamber of Commerce expect 700 students from 30 area schools and more than 50 vendor booths illustrating the variety of career options in the healthcare field.

“As a senior, there’s a lot of pressure figuring out what comes next,” Ludlow said. “I always knew I wanted to help people, but I wasn’t exactly sure where I fit in.”

Ludlow, Captain of the Junior Firefighters Program at the Dansville Fire Department and member of the Explorer Program at the Dansville Ambulance Company, is currently enrolled in the Genesee Valley BOCES Emergency Medical Services program, where he was the first student to get certified as a NYS Emergency Medical Technician, a certification that takes several months to complete.

Last year, he was a presenter at GLOW With Your Hands, along with his teacher, Alyssa Baker. They will both also present at this year’s event.

“The event reinforces that the skills we teach in the classroom are relevant and meaningful beyond school goals. For my students, this experience validates their work and broadens their understanding of what is possible,” said Baker.

Participating students will have the opportunity to rotate through hands-on experiences, including specialized nursing demonstrations, career workshops, an interactive college/training fair, and healthcare in action activities, all of which aim to provide comprehensive exposure to pathways into these careers.

“GLOW With Your Hands provides an experience that helps concepts truly stick for my students. I often see them arrive a bit reserved, but that quickly changes once they begin engaging with other students, working together to solve problems, and asking questions,” Baker said.

Baker was an EMT for 14 years before her current position as teacher in the EMS program at BOCES. She also teaches night classes at the Livingston County Center for Emergency Operations and Training at the Hamptons Corners facility.

“What makes this experience especially impactful is seeing students from their own district recognize the value of what they can start learning now,” Baker said. “They see what is possible to graduate high school, already certified as an EMT, and prepare to step directly into the workforce or continue their education with a strong foundation.”

The event itself includes various vendors with multiple stations that let students experience simulations of things like an Automated External Defibrillator (AED), stitching a wound, or applying a tourniquet.

“These students are engaging in interactive, hands-on workshops. They’re witnessing healthcare in action,” Grouse said.

The EMT booth even has CPR dummies connected to an app that show depth of compression, chest recoil when giving rescue breaths, and appropriate head tilt. The technology gives them instant feedback, Ludlow explained.

“It’s a mixture of people who are in the classroom, leading hands-on workshops, organizations sharing information, and careers associated with that as well,” said Winters.

“Every school group rotates through the different stations, and they really get a good comprehensive overview of healthcare,” Winters said.

“When students meet passionate clinicians face-to-face, they gain insight into the variety of professional pathways we offer,” said Tammy West, vice president of patient services and chief nursing officer.

“It also shows how our hospital fosters growth through internships, scholarships, and career development programs. Moreover, sharing expertise reminds us of why we built our careers, why we went into healthcare — because we’re here for the people. We’re here to support the community,” West said.

‘A movement’

“This is not just an event,” said Grouse. “This is a movement that is integral to the development of our youth in this region, to expose them to careers in healthcare that offer family-sustaining incomes.”

That movement probably couldn’t come at a better time.

The New York State Department of Health hosted its first-ever New York State Nursing Workforce Summit in June of 2025 after the NYS Health Commissioner determined in March that there is an “an acute labor supply shortage of certified nurse aides, licensed practical nurses, and registered nurses” in many areas of New York State, including parts of the GLOW region.

“I think especially coming from the pandemic, the number of people seeking to go into healthcare probably is as low as it’s ever been,” said UR Noyes Health President & CEO Dr. Chad Teeters.

“So the need is great, and coupled with the need, we have the baby boom population getting older, reaching that Medicare age range, as well as hospitals being more full now than ever before with the closure of facilities,” Teeters said.

“We need the best and brightest, not to mention the fact that the challenges that we’ll face in the next 10 to 20 years are probably greater than we’ve ever faced before — the potential insolvency of Medicare and Medicaid, the rising age of population, people living longer but with more chronic disease, healthcare reimbursement diminishing. So we need the best and brightest more now than ever before,” Teeters said.

An event like GLOW With Your Hands will help to “develop a pipeline to bring kids from the classroom into careers that can be both rewarding, both financially and personally, but also give them the opportunity to serve the very community where they’ve lived and grown up,” Teeters said.

But inspiring young people to pursue healthcare careers is not only a one-day event, said Grouse.

Winters and Grouse organize workplace tours to places like the UR Noyes Imaging Department as well as nursing tours. They work with high school counselors to bring healthcare professionals into school districts through career presenter programs and helps organize career days.

“We need to expand the career horizons of our students and show them pathways into careers that are going to allow them to thrive right here in our own region,” Grouse said.

“Our shared mission is clear,” said Winters. “To empower the next generation of healthcare professionals to ensure a thriving healthcare workforce here in the GLOW Region. We’re not just talking about filling jobs— we’re talking about building careers, fostering and retaining talent, and strengthening our communities.”

GLOW With Your Hands: Healthcare is sponsored by the ESL Foundation, UR Medicine Noyes Health, Wyoming County Community Health Services, RRH, United Memorial Medical Center, Medina Memorial Hospital, GCEDC, Livingston County Area Chamber of Commerce, Orleans County Job Development, the Wyoming County Business Education Council, the GLOW Workforce Development Offices, Genesee Valley BOCES, GCEDC, and SUNY Genesee Community College.