Meet the Class of 2026: Elijah Kozloff to the Rescue

It was a typical day between 6th and 7th period on the campus of Corona High School, as students were filling into Room C-3, the Health Careers Pathway classroom of Jim Winn.

Suddenly, a student burst in through the door, asking for help because a staff member had fallen outside and was hurt.

Mr. Winn was on the office phone speaking with another teacher and didn’t immediately hear the urgent request.

But, senior Elijah Kozloff did and immediately jumped into action.

“The student who saw the situation happen is actually in our Health Careers Pathway, and she turned to me because I was standing right next to Mr. Winn. “She said, ‘Hey, someone went down outside,’ and when we hear a patient goes down, we know immediately our response is going to need to include life-saving measures, even if it's not required,” Elijah said.

Part of the training Elijah received over the last two years in Mr. Winn’s classroom gave him the confidence to be ready for anything.

“I always tell students whenever someone is found unconscious or unresponsive, you never know if it is for seconds, minutes, or forever. I've seen all three, and that's what is tough. You just never know,” Mr. Winn said.

“What Mr. Winn teaches us about emergency response situations, is that it’s natural for you to get some adrenaline, for your heart rate to go up, and even sometimes for people to act without thinking very much. So, he teaches us to slow down, and take a breath,” Elijah said. “These are high-stakes situations, but you need to be able to perform because whether or not you are a practicing physician, when you are in an emergency situation like that, you are the professional. You are the person who's responding and responsible for the skills that you have and acting on that.”

“So I took a breath before I walked out there, and made sure that I was calm when I approached her and made sure that the scene was safe, which is our first step in emergency response scene safety,” Elijah said. “I told the crowd that was gathering around, ‘Hey guys, I need some space. Can I have some space, please?’”

By the time Elijah encountered the situation outside, the staff member was starting to regain consciousness, so he quickly returned to the classroom to retrieve the tools and supplies he would need to address the situation.

Based on the training he received in his Health Careers Pathway classes, Elijah’s tools included an automated external defibrillator, a blood pressure cuff, and a pulse oximeter machine.

Elijah used the pulse oximeter to check her heart rate and blood pressure, then recorded the readings. He checked again five minutes later to compare the results and determine next steps.

“In an emergency, many people are moving to get away. But, there are people whose job it is to say, ‘No, we have to go this way,’ toward the situation,” Mr. Winn said. “In this day and age, people often will grab their phones and start recording video, but I thought it was great that our students saw someone in distress and immediately reacted in ways to make the scene better.”

While all this was happening, students from Mr. Winn’s Career Technical Education Health Careers Pathway Intermediate Sports Medicine class were filing into the room with several students recognizing a real-time lesson happening in the moment. After intermediate class student Juliana Velasco first notified Elijah, other intermediate students Naraly Campos, Unique Jones, and Jonathan Felix assisted with the response.

“After Elijah’s initial assessment and quick return to the classroom, he immediately gave directions to the intermediate students to get towels, water, and other supplies,” Mr. Winn said. “That week, we were actually covering First Aid/CPR components with the intermediate students, and it was such a great lesson for them to see a senior in the advanced class who has learned all these skills and is putting them into action.”

“I remember myself back when I was in the introductory sports medicine class last year as a junior, and I probably wouldn't have responded the same way that these students did,” Elijah shared. “I was very impressed with how they understood the situation, responded respectfully to the patient, and were very calm and collected the whole time.”

When asked what his takeaway is from this on-campus emergency, Elijah reflected on how it represents career opportunities, thanks to what he has learned from Mr. Winn.

“I think it really just solidifies my wanting to be in a career where I can help people. I'm really grateful that I was the person who was able to respond to that situation because I've been trained in this program, and I was able to put my training into practice.” After he graduates, Elijah will be heading to California State University, San Marcos, where he will major in kinesiology. His goal is to become a doctor of physical therapy like his teacher, Mr. Winn.

“Mr. Winn is a veteran in all sorts of ways. He’s an athletic trainer with experience in physical therapy and emergency medicine, and he runs his courses very connected to real-world scenarios,” Elijah said. “I think that's what makes his class so effective. He can give us a situation where we know how to respond, even if things are changed. We're very adaptive because of the way he runs his course, and all the other teachers in the health careers pathway are like this too. We all understand that if something happens, we are the ones who are responding, and we are responsible for that response because we're the ones who have the skills.”

“When you look at what a CTE program is, I don't care if it's aviation, engineering, automotive, culinary, or anything else, you want to see that students are not only understanding concepts, but they know what to do,” Mr. Winn said. “That it’s embedded in their reaction to the situation.”

When the Corona Fire Department arrived on the scene that day, Mr. Winn recognized the lead paramedic as a former student, Ryan Cortez.

“With Ryan responding to the scene, it was just another example for the kids to see their future in someone who sat in these very chairs,” Mr. Winn said. “The whole day was a reminder that these skillsets can make a difference, and this is why you’re taking a CTE course.”