Auburn High School senior turns passion for helping people into lifesaving work
By Antoinette Antonio
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AUBURN, Massachusetts (WCVB) — Auburn High School senior Panayiotis Poniros, known to friends as “Panos,” is used to staying busy.
On any given day, he could be found playing drums in the band room, DJing a school event, working behind the scenes of a musical production or responding to an emergency call.
“I’m definitely into the health care field,” Panos said. “I love helping people. There’s nothing quite like it and there’s such a need for it, especially now. It’s the only thing that I could see myself doing.”
That passion led Panos to take on a major challenge as soon as he turned 18: becoming a certified emergency medical technician.
While balancing school and extracurricular activities, Panos completed rigorous EMT training, often starting his days early and switching gears quickly between academics and emergency medicine.
“It goes from doing calculus to counting how many times someone’s breathing a minute,” he said.
After earning his EMT certification, Panos began volunteering on the sidelines at school athletic events and with the Auburn Fire Department, taking on long shifts and gaining hands-on experience responding to real emergencies.
“I was doing 12-hour days,” he said. “I was trying to get 24-hour shifts, as well. There was a lot going on.”
As he wraps up his senior year, Panos will be interning full-time, spending his mornings in class and the rest of his day at the fire station, ready to head out on 911 emergency calls.
His dedication is already paying off.
Panos has been accepted to College of the Holy Cross, where he plans to study pre-med. His long-term goal is to become an emergency room doctor, continuing to help people when they need it most.
“He could do anything he wants in life,” said Ginny Bailey, Auburn High School’s director of instrumental music. “If he wanted to be a professional musician, he has the work ethic to do that. The fact that he wants to go into medicine and is already working as an EMT just shows what a kind heart he has. He’s a servant leader who truly wants to give back to his community.”
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