Angel Basilio didn’t know until high school what he wanted to do for a living, but a unique internship made a life-changing impression. For the last two years, Basilio participated in a fire service internship offered over spring break.
Students and firefighters use the jaws of life to extricate a victim.
The immersion program is the result of a partnership between the Prospect Heights Fire Protection District and Northwest Suburban High School District 214.
Basilio participated in the internship in 2024 and 2025, while a student at Wheeling High School. After graduating in May, he applied to the apprentice program at the Prospect Heights Fire District, and was accepted.
“I am the first generation to join the fire service in my family, including being the first generation to finish high school and obtain higher education, including certificates,” Basilio says. “I did not fully picture myself as a firefighter. I only ever looked up to them throughout my elementary education.
“It wasn’t until high school,” he adds, “when I started to picture myself as a firefighter, and I decided to work to make it come true.”
For starters, Basilio earned two scholarships — one from the Arlington Heights Memorial Library Foundation and one from the District 214 Foundation — that funded his EMT tuition through Oakton College and his fire academy tuition.
He completed EMT training in the summer of 2025 and the fire academy in the fall of 2025, and has been working part time for the the district since then. Basilio even served as an instructor and mentor with this year’s students in the internship.
During the four days in the internship, students donned fire gear to respond to simulated fires, rescue victims out of a smoke-filled room, learn about the levers and switches on firetrucks to control water flow, and they even learned how to extricate a victim involved in a car crash using the jaws of life.
This was the third year for the internship and it drew seven students, from each of the district high schools, except Wheeling High School. Originally, it was designed as part of District 214’s Pathways to Careers Program, and specifically part of its Human and Public Service Pathway, which includes a work-based learning experience in emergency and fire management service.
Barbara Kain directs the Career Discovery program for District 214 and she sees national recognition of the importance of work-based learning experiences in helping young adults determine the trajectory of their life after high school.
“Our partnership with the Prospect Heights Fire Department offers students a concentrated, in-depth, week-long experience that puts them in situations a firefighter experiences daily,” Kain says. “It’s these kinds of hands-on experiences that help refine students’ career goals and help them decide if they can see themselves in a particular career field, which is a primary mission of District 214’s Career Pathway program.”
For Prospect Heights Fire Chief Drew Smith — who completed the Fire Cadet Program during his junior and senior years at Prospect High School — it really boiled down to giving students life experiences that they might not get in the classroom.
“A big part of my career and personal mission,” Smith says, “is to help young people who are thinking about a career in fire service.”
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