Elizabethtown College students enrolled in Professor of Sociology Michele Lee Kozimor’s Statistical Analysis class are working with the Lancaster County Emergency Management Agency (LEMA) to study emergency preparedness in Lancaster County. The class is collaborating with alumnus Zachary Gibbons ’18, the Hazardous Materials Administrator for LEMA, on the community-based research project.
“Community-based research provides a real-work application in dealing with meaningful data for students before the completion of their college degrees,” English Education and Sociology major and captain of the project’s public relations team, Caroline Czerpak ’25 said. “It also helps increase our level of awareness regarding social issues and helps us work in unfamiliar environments, preparing us for future careers.”
The class’s goal is to identify which municipalities in Lancaster County require increased planning and assistance for a disaster, examining steps taken to mitigate damage and enhance safety before, during, and after an emergency or natural disaster.
“As students who attend school in Lancaster County, this project will help us identify personal emergency preparedness and consider what steps should be taken to keep ourselves and others safe in the event of an emergency,” Czerpak said.
Students developed a survey for Lancaster County residents measuring respondents’ self-reported preparedness level and potential factors that impact emergency response protocols. After collecting data, they’ll analyze and present their findings to LEMA at the end of the semester. Recently, the students received an invitation from Brian Pasquale, Director of Emergency Management, to present preliminary findings from the project to the Board of Commissioners at the government center in Lancaster City. The Sociology students have been working on the project since the fall when they took a Research Methods course.
“I have been incorporating community-based research into the year-long research course sequence since 2008 to create opportunities for students to integrate course material, develop career-readiness competencies, build relationships, foster a greater sense of belonging, and apply social science research in an applied setting,” Kozimor said. “The students have been working extremely hard this year and are very dedicated to providing the best possible outcomes for the project.”
Gibbons, who was an Ethics major with a Sociology minor while at Etown, took both Research Methods and Statistical Analysis during his senior year. When the emergency preparedness project came up in his office, he knew it would be the perfect project for Kozimor’s class.
“The project is important to LEMA because the students are collecting essential information for the preparedness efforts in Lancaster County,” Gibbons said. “The Director of Emergency Management for Lancaster County was very impressed with how thorough and professionally written the mid-year report was.”
During the project, students are exposed to the world of emergency management. LEMA provided information regarding internships, volunteer opportunities, and careers in emergency management including additional schooling and certifications.
