Southeast offers new degree on how to be prepared when disaster strikes

Southeast Missouri State University is now offering a new Bachelor's of Science degree in Emergency Preparedness this year. The degree was finalized at the beginning of the fall semester.

John Kraemer is an associate professor and also the director for the Department of Environment Science. Before working at Southeast, Kraemer worked in public and private sectors for 16 years.

"I wanted to have work experience and bring that to the students," Kraemer said. "It's kind of what I always wanted to do."

Kraemer said that he has been working on getting the degree available at Southeast for a while.

"We've been working on this idea for a couple of years just trying to get everything together, and one of the big things is that we live on the New Madrid fault, so it would make sense to have something like this degree to be out there for the students," Kraemer said.

With very little hype about the new degree, Kraemer said that he currently has 35 students in one of the classes that he teaches.

"I've gotten several phone calls from the public and they're interested also, who are already working professional and are thinking about coming back and getting a second degree," Kraemer said.

The new degree will help students learn and prepare themselves for any disaster or catastrophe that may occur and also learn how to coordinate through various levels at either the local community level, business-end or regional level.

Students pursuing the degree get to experience hands-on learning. Kraemer said that he has students who are currently working for the emergency management in the county and has several students who are doing a lot of different hands-on jobs for hospitals.

"I have students right now that are working for FEMA," Kraemer said. "So it would be a good opportunity for the students to work at any level that they would like to participate in, not only preparedness and response but recovery, too."

Kraemer hopes that this new degree will interest a great number of people who can get these basic skills that will enable them to go out and find jobs.

"There's going to be a 22 percent increase in the job market through 2016," Kraemer said. "That is what's forecasted. After that, we don't know, but I suspect they will keep going up. Private companies will realize that they will need to be able to recover from any kind of disaster or emergency that may happen. The faster the recovery, the better the economic area recovery, which means better lives in our area."

A certificate is in the midst of being processed right now, which will require only 15 hours for students who are interested in learning about emergency preparedness. Kraemer said that it would be in the public health, environmental health or hospital preparedness areas. These students will also get to experience some of the same hands-on work as those who are signed up for the degree.

An online degree is also currently in the works.

Allen Gathman, associate dean for online learning, said that he would like to have the website up soon that way students who are interested can sign up for online courses.

"I'm working through making sure that the courses will be there," Gathman said.

According to the degree map for the Emergency Preparedness degree, students can expect to find jobs or internships at places such as humanitarian organizations, emergency management services, public health agencies, U.S. Department of Agriculture, as a Red Cross emergency director and more.

"It will be helpful for many of the folks in the National Guard," Kraemer said. "So that when people are out, they will get access to the degree. That's really good because when we think of disasters, we think of the National Guard to show up and help."

The degree map for the Emergency Preparedness states that students are expected to complete 96 hours in their curriculum, a minimum of 120 overall credit hours, complete the university studies program, CL001-004, WP003 and MAPP at the freshman and senior levels.

Students who are interested in learning more about the new Emergency Preparedness degree can contact John Kraemer at jkraemer@semo.edu.