KU News Release

May 11, 2009
Contact: Jean Kygar Eblen, University Relations, (785) 864-8852.

Graduation stories: With EMT skills, KU senior pushes for public safety

LAWRENCE — Before Brad Cardonell came to the University of Kansas, most fraternities didn’t conduct routine fire drills at their houses to test alarm systems. Now they do, thanks to some of his initiatives.

Trained and licensed as an emergency medical technician while in high school, Cardonell came to KU from Tribune, a town of about 1,000 located some 400 miles from KU in a Mountain Time Zone in far west Kansas. By commuting 180 miles round trip three days a week to Garden City Community College, he was able to earn an associate’s degree the same year he graduated from high school. Now he’s graduating from KU with a bachelor’s degree in neurobiology and minor in business. He will start medical school later this year at the KU School of Medicine.

He and others in his high school and community often complete EMT training at the nearby community college, then volunteer for Greeley County Emergency Medical Services. That’s been Cardonell’s routine during most semester breaks or school vacations while he’s been a full-time KU student.

Since 1985, his parents, Randy and Tracey Cardonell, have lived in Tribune, her hometown. After a hurricane destroyed their residence in Galveston, Texas, her father, Don B. Smith, sent one of his cattle trucks to bring the Cardonells back to Kansas.

Randy Cardonell is director of operations and training for Response Systems, a private firm based in Tribune that provides disaster consulting and equipment geared to the needs of hospitals nationwide. His extensive EMS-related activities include director of Greeley County Emergency Management and president of Kansas Emergency Medical Technicians Association.

Tracey Cardonell is an occupational therapist working throughout western Kansas for the interlocal High Plains Educational Cooperative. Brad’s older sister Cassie, also an EMT, has an undergraduate kinesiology degree from Kansas State University and plans to pursue graduate studies in medical physics.

Brad Cardonell is the first in his family to attend KU and the only one from his high school class of 26. He believes that joining Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity was key to what he has been able to accomplish within the greek, KU and Lawrence communities and beyond.

“KU was the only place I wanted to go,” Cardonell said. “I wanted to join the fraternity for the sense of community and the leadership opportunities as well as the social activities. I started out as a freshman working in risk management.”

He admitted that at first his work “was not warmly received” but proved beneficial over time and brought the fraternity a Risk Management Award from the KU Interfraternity Council. Later, he served the council as chair of Greeks Advocating Mature Management of Alcohol, vice president for risk management and a judicial board member.

More and more, he realized his EMT training gave him unique skills to improve students’ lives through community service efforts directly related to public safety and risk-management issues. In the process, he met, worked with and found a mentor in Frank DeSalvo, associate vice provost for student success who came to KU in 1991 as director of counseling and psychological services.

“Brad Cardonell is driven by his concern for the health and well-being of others,” DeSalvo said. “Any community that Brad Cardonell calls home will be very fortunate to have him.

“When he was a high school student he was making ambulance runs at all hours of the day and night to attend to medical emergencies occurring in and around his rural community. When KU became his community, he was a driving force in helping fraternity and sororities organize their efforts to address risky behaviors associated with unhealthy alcohol use.”

With assistance from Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical personnel, Cardonell helped team-teach basic CPR and first aid to fellow fraternity members.

“We tried to get at least five to come from each fraternity house for basic training so they’d know what to do in emergency situations,” he said.

In 2006, he tackled fire drills as Interfraternity Council vice president of risk management.

“We wanted to require all houses to have fire drills. We tried at first for an annual requirement to have one. We set a goal of having everyone out in two minutes. IFC worked with the fire department and we set up a schedule, usually with a start time of 6 a.m.

“KU was one of the first campuses nationwide to require sprinklers in all its Greek houses. They were already in place when I got here. But only two or three houses had done fire drills on a regular basis. We wanted to do fire drills so we could work out glitches in the alarm systems. We involved alumni and house boards.”

Cardonell’s leadership with the the Ali Kemp Educational Foundation led to self-defense training for women at KU, and Sigma Phi Epsilon adopted the foundation by unanimous vote as one of its national philanthropies.

Ali Kemp, who was murdered in 2002 while working at a Leawood community swimming pool, was the sister of Tyler Kemp, KU alumnus and Sig Ep membership development chair when Brad Cardonell joined the fraternity. At first, the self-defense classes were a joint effort coordinated for KU sorority members by KU chapters of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and Pi Beta Phi sorority. Ali Kemp had been a Pi Beta Phi member at K-State. Subsequently, foundation staff members began conducting classes open to all women students.

Through work with Dr. Stephen Segebrecht, Lawrence otolaryngologist, also a KU and Sig Ep alumnus, Cardonell has made trips to assist at medical clinic philahthropies in Kenya. Last summer, he worked with Comfort the Children in Maai Mahiu, Kenya. Before he starts medical school, he’ll leave May 31 for another trip to Kenya to help set up a small community HIV-AIDS program.

“It’s changed my view of medicine. Now my goal is to give back in whatever way I can,” he said. “We don’t realize how lucky we are. If you’re in a car wreck in the United States, you can call 911 for help. In Africa I’d see trucks turned over, off the road, down a hill and nobody was there to help. Nobody knew what happened to these people.”

-30-

The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.

kunews@ku.edu | (785) 864-3256 | 1314 Jayhawk Blvd., Lawrence, KS 66045