LAS VEGAS-- The country's largest 911 dispatch center is helping local high school students get ready for the workforce.
Students at the Veterans Career and Technical Academy are some of them. Junior, Kelli Jackson says the hands on experience she's learning now will help her in the future.
"If they're not calm or they are ranting and raving you have to learn how to calm them down to get our information, that's all we have to do is get our information as fast as we can."
Being a 911 dispatcher isn't an easy job and can be very stressful. Former metro dispatcher and teacher Lori Henricksen know's this first hand.
"You deal with somebody on the phone and maybe they've just lost somebody or somebody has just been shot and then you go on to the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing, and then later that night, maybe you've handled 20 or 40 calls and you don't know the outcome. So you are left with the most traumatic part of their life, and you don't know what happened."
But even with the stress of the job students like Xitla Lithprito said in the end it's very rewarding.
"You're like yeah I helped a person, even though I'm not there on scene with them, I helped them through the phone a lot of our dispatchers, they convince people out of suicide, and that's really self rewarding."
Each student receives a certificate once they graduate from the program.
