​During their senior year at MMA, Emergency Management students are required to take Exercise Planning, a capstone-style course that builds on the knowledge, skills, experiences, and internships they’ve gained throughout the EM program. In this course, students learn to plan, design, and develop emergency exercises using the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP). They practice the terminology, processes, and objectives essential to creating realistic scenarios that support communities and organizations across the Commonwealth.

Each year, we partner with approximately 20 external agencies and communities. Students are assigned a partner organization or community and spend the fall semester designing a discussion-based disaster scenario, known as a tabletop exercise (TTX), tailored to test that organization’s plans and procedures. In the spring, students have the invaluable opportunity to facilitate their exercise in front of stakeholders, including fire and police chiefs, municipal departments, local businesses, hospitals, and more. After six months of work, it becomes a truly rewarding and confidence-building experience.

In these photos, you can see 1/C Eli Jache and 1/C Pablo Hruska-Cleary facilitating a severe-weather scenario for Somerville’s annual Music Fest. The second photo features 1/C Reece Gannon and 1/C Jonathan Isabelle leading a wildfire exercise that includes planning for the sheltering of household pets.