ARCADIA, Ind. (WISH) — Students at Hamilton Heights Middle School got some hands-on experience with a special career day Tuesday morning.

They received a special introduction to the emergency medical service field. An IU Health LifeLine helicopter landed right outside the school to start off the event. Throughout the morning, fourth and eighth grade students at heard from nine different agencies.

It’s all part of Reaching New Heights — the school’s career outreach program.

Fire, police, dispatch and emergency management personnel were on hand to discuss what it takes to do their jobs.

Flight Paramedic Samantha Ashley was on the ground to see students react to the helicopter touching down. She says she took the job to challenge herself.

“Ever since I had my first scene … with LifeLine at the age of 20 I was kind of hooked,” Ashley said. “[I] made that my goal career-wise.”

Flight Nurse Randal Dykstra was also there. He says working in an Intensive Care Unit got him ready for the job.

“We’re just so happy that the kids are here,” Dykstra said. “We get to share the best job in the world with them. It’s something we both love very much to do.”

The Reaching New Heights initiative is relatively new within the Hamilton Heights School Corporation. This is only the second year since it rolled out.

According to Connor James, director of Reaching New Heights, the goa is to show each grade level 40 different potential careers before they leave middle school.

Dykstra happens to be James’ neighbor. The nurse pitched the idea to him about a year ago.

James says it was a perfect idea for the program.

“We realized, well, we have to have firefighters here for the landing zone,” James said. “We already have our resource officer here. It’s the week of 9/11. We thought, ‘Really, let’s take this event and make it something really memorable for our students.’”

School Resource Officer Jon Tindal also took part in career day. He says he got into law enforcement because of his early exposure to the field.

“[It’s] an opportunity to encourage those kids to see those opportunities,” Tindal said. “There’s so much more to it that goes into these careers.”