Unionville senior earns Cadet of the Year

Posted by Press Release on May 30, 2018

Thursday, May 24 was graduation day for the 2018 class members of the Octorara Homeland Security & Protective Services Academy. The academy is a half-day high school program open to all Chester County students to train for careers in firefighting, emergency medical, and law enforcement related careers. This year, Jordan Marzolf, a senior from Unionville High School has earned the title of Cadet of the Year.

Unionville-Chadds Ford School District Superintendent John Sanville congratulates Jordan Marzolf for being named Cadet of the Year.

Among the normal activities of those pressing for academic excellence, he also committed himself to a life of service. As a toddler, Jordan was passionate about fire engines and airplanes. The local fire department where he lived in Pittsburgh knew him by name from his many visits. At age 14, he began training and volunteering to be a first responder, accumulating over 1,000 hours of training. Today, he is an AP/Honors student at Unionville High School in the morning and travels to the Chester County Public Safety Training Center for the second half of his day where he earned national certifications in firefighting, hazardous materials, vehicle rescue, emergency medical technician and emergency management. Combined, both the academic and practical curriculum is extremely challenging, yet he excelled and maintained honors in both. Jordan is a member of the Unionville National Honor Society. Jordan also scored advanced in both the written and practical for the National Occupational Competency Testing Institute for the Protective Services field.

Jordan is an active volunteer with Po-Mar-Lin and Avondale Fire companies. He was the 2017 Firefighter of the Year at Po-Mar-Lin. He has taken many additional training classes such as Aircraft Rescue, Building Construction, and Fire Dynamics. He is a certified Fire Police Officer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Regardless of whether he is working, studying, flying his airplane (he is also an FAA Certified Private Pilot), or simply keeping busy at the firehouse training and coordinating emergencies, Jordan is always available to serve. As soon as the pager activates, he responds to help those in need…such as the recent Barclay Friends Home fire. Jordan received a citation for assisting in the rescue of occupants during that event among many others. He is a dedicated servant constantly pursuing excellence in everything he does.

Jordan has stayed true to his lifetime passions. His goals are to dedicate his life to volunteer work as a first responder where he hopes to become chief of a volunteer fire department and fly professionally as a commercial pilot. He will attend Marywood University where he received a merit scholarship to study business aviation operations and commercial pilot curriculum.