![\"\"](\"https:\/\/clemson.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Johannes-Huber.jpg\")
\nStudent safety first. It\u2019s a call answered by Clemson Fire and EMS every day, but it was a group of\u00a0students who first wanted safety ensured.
\nIn the late 1970s Johannes Huber was part of the core group that formed an EMS club on\u00a0campus. Through training from the Pickens County EMS, Huber and his friends aided students with\u00a0everything from helping when a Homecoming float turned over and injured a dozen people to providing\u00a0aid to heart attack victims. \u201cWe were really taken in by the student body,\u201d said Huber.
\nWithin a year, they were already seeking funds for an ambulance to have proper transportation for\u00a0runs. Within Huber\u2019s three years at Clemson, his team was completing up to 150 runs a year, with the\u00a0backup of Clemson\u2019s fire department.
\nHuber\u2019s interest in medicine and helping people goes back to his childhood in Germany, when he\u00a0would bandage local bikers. \u201cMedicine was always my gift,\u201d he said. Grades though, not so much.
\nA letter from a pen pal from Pennsylvania mentioned Clemson University. Knowing he needed to\u00a0improve his grades to get into medical school, Huber thought studying abroad would be good for him.\u00a0So to the hills of South Carolina he went. \u201cIt\u2019s just this beautiful town in the countryside with\u00a0rolling hills and open to an orange and white heaven,\u201d he said with a laugh.
\nTwice a week he wrote home. Once a month he\u2019d call so his family could hear his voice at $10 a\u00a0minute. But as an older biochemistry student at age 21, he was looking for more than football games\u00a0and fraternities to fill his time. \u201cImplementing something new gives you so much energy,\u201d said Huber.\u201cI couldn\u2019t go home on weekends, so I stayed and learned [medicine] through experience.\u201d\u00a0Huber finally did get into medical school in Germany and returned home for training in general,\u00a0plastic and microscopy surgery. Now he oversees a staff of about 25 nurses and clocks more than 70\u00a0hours a week.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been back [to Clemson] several times. \u2026 It\u2019s always a homecoming for me,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just\u00a0amazed at all the construction, and that spirit is still ever present.\u201d On every return trip he drops by the\u00a0Clemson Fire and EMS. \u201cCollege life offers you an opportunity for friendship, and I was very fortunate\u00a0to be in a position to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"