'To Build You Up': Inside the High-Intensity Week of the Redlands Emergency Services Academy
Photo by Skip Hill
Cadets practice applying spray patterns.
By David James Heiss
Redlands News Collective
REDLANDS — Nicholas Story had been anticipating nothing but fun during a week of shadowing police officers and firefighters as they showed cadets what goes on in their professions.
He had been referred to the Redlands Emergency Services Academy (RESA) by a friend who went through the program last year. What he wasn’t prepared for was the intensity.
While standing in formation—forced to maintain a mask of rigid stoicism — Story's commanding officers stood mere inches from his face, aggressively exploiting his surname. They barraged him with demands to extemporize an impromptu tale on the spot, weaponizing his own name in an attempt to break his military bearing.
When he stammered that he couldn’t think of one, they yelled at him to “Start with ‘Once upon a time!’”
“You’ve got two guys yelling at you. It’s hard to think on your feet,” never mind be clever enough to come up with a satisfying story on the spot, Story said during a break in their training earlier this week. To his commanding officers’ amusement, and with a straight face, he finally mustered, “Once upon a time we fell into formation correctly, sir!”
Story admitted the experience was "shocking" and not quite what he was expecting. “You’re always wrong, and they’re always right,” he said of the commanding officers who led the cadets through several hours of rigorous, almost militaristic activities throughout the past week.
Thirty-one cadets comprised the latest cohort to experience RESA, which provides hands-on training, industry simulations, and classroom and real-world instruction. Topics ranged from weaponless defense techniques and firearms safety to SWAT training and practicing with firefighter turnouts and protective gear.
Story’s hard work and quick wit paid off: his peers, with the approval of the academy's leadership, selected him to be the class sergeant of the 2026 RESA cohort.
Story and a few of his classmates took a moment during a break at Crafton Hills College’s Public Safety Training Center to reflect on their week in the trenches.
Fellow RESA alumnus Ryan Gibbons had originally talked up the program to Story while hanging out at Redlands East Valley High School, boasting about how much fun it was.
“I heard that you shadow a firefighter for a week,” said Story, who aspires to be a firefighter paramedic and is already enrolled in Crafton’s EMT training program. “That’s not at all what it is,” he said with a grin. “During the interview process is when Ryan finally told me about all that other stuff.”
Photo by Skip Hill
From left: Devin Huff, Oscar Monarrez and Tanner Duval participate in an active shooter drill.
His assistant staff sergeant, Jayleen Blackcloud, who graduated this past spring from Citrus Valley High School, learned about the academy at school as well. Currently studying business at San Bernardino Valley College, Blackcloud said her experience over the past several days absolutely “helped me fall in love with law enforcement.”
“I didn’t realize all the specialties you can go into,” Blackcloud said. Thanks to the exposure provided by RESA, she is now considering a career combating narcotics and gangs.
“You can get disguises and go undercover, find ways to bust cartels,” Blackcloud said. “When it comes to gangs, you can go to different jails and see all the characteristics of the different facilities.”
Logan McNair, a recent Redlands High School graduate studying psychology at California State University, San Bernardino, is currently an Explorer with the Redlands Police Department.
Photo by Skip Hill
At left, Seth Heun and Oscar Monarrez participate in fire drills.
RESA, compared to the Explorer program, is “by far more intense,” McNair admitted. “The Explorers are a little more informal” in comparison. He noted there are only seven Explorers in his post, though he believes he may have recently recruited a couple more, including Blackcloud.
With RESA, “There’s a lot more formation. You can’t show any expression or ‘personal face.’ Explorers teach you this, but the intensity is greater here — 24 hours a day for seven days straight.”
Seth Heun, a recent REV graduate, was encouraged to check out RESA by his friend Keaton Schlax.
“He told me that we do live fire demos,” but as far as anything else related to the program, “he literally left out all of it,” Heun said. “I thought we would be way more lax. No: you literally have two guys yelling at you, and you’re sounding off. If you’re not doing it, you’re running to a rock” in the distance as a disciplinary measure.
According to Blackcloud, however, the intensity and demanding nature of the program “makes sense in the end.”
“You can’t slack off. You never know what victims are going to do. It teaches you to really be on your toes and secure your situation,” Blackcloud said, reflecting on the simulated emergency scenarios.
“Dropping your gear, being undersecured—it is important to pay attention to those details in these careers,” Story added. “Officers have multiple scenarios and have to be listening to every detail. The program isn’t meant to put you down, but build you up. You realize that we’re not individuals; we’re a team.”
RESA began in July of 1999 as a collaborative effort among the Redlands Police and Fire Departments, Crafton Hills College, the Redlands Unified School District, and COMPACT (a Redlands business and school community partnership) to offer new local high school graduates a firsthand look at public safety careers. The University of Redlands has been a major supporter, providing classroom and residential facilities for the cadets.
Since 2009, RESA has been funded by a grant from the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation. Additional support comes from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and Crafton Hills College, alongside donations from Stater Bros. Charities, Toyota of Redlands, the Tom Bell Family Foundation, the Redlands Police Officers Association, the Redlands Professional Firefighters Association, the Redlands Police Community Foundation, and several local food vendors.
In 2012, the academy won the Ruth Vreeland Award for Engaging Youth in City Government from the League of California Cities. RESA has also received the Hero of the Heartland Award at Stater Bros. Charities’ annual Jack H. Brown Heroes Challenge Awards Banquet.
Skip Hill, serving in his second year as the high school director for RESA, coordinates the information sessions and recruits potential cadets.
Photo by David James Heiss
Cadets Devin Huff, at left, and Jose Ramiro Monarrez secure safety gear as they prepare to climb a fire ladder.
“The goal is to give prospective senior students who are interested in a career as a first responder real-life experiences with a one-week, live-in academy,” Hill explained. The cadets stayed in a dormitory at the University of Redlands during their training.
Getting through the application process alone can weed out a number of potential candidates, according to Sgt. Chris Mead, a RESA alumnus who went through the inaugural class in 1999.
“If the application says to write a three-page essay, it needs to be three pages,” Mead said. Similar to applying for a professional job, he noted, there is no room for skipping steps or leaving questions blank.
Photo by David James Heiss
Cadet Tanner Duval takes in the view atop a 105-foot long ladder.
And when it comes to the interviewing process, “You’d be surprised how many kids show up in a T-shirt, or wearing a hat backwards,” Mead added.
“While the core mission has stayed the same, some of the training has changed over the years. For example, when I attended, one of our major experiences was participating in a controlled burn of an abandoned house. Today, cadets have opportunities to visit the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Aviation Unit and train at the state-of-the-art Crafton Hills Fire Academy, where they participate in controlled burn scenarios in a modern training facility. The program has continued to adapt while still giving students a realistic look at careers in law enforcement and the fire service.
“As these 31 cadets graduate, I hope they leave with more than just memories of a great week," Mead said. "I hope they walk away with confidence in themselves, lifelong friendships, a better understanding of leadership and teamwork, and the motivation to pursue their goals with integrity and perseverance. Whether they choose a career in public safety or another profession, I hope the lessons they learned about discipline, service, and character stay with them for the rest of their lives.”