By Brian Robbins

Ryan Baron, red-shirt sophomore on the KU Golden Bears football team, was recently recognized for an exceptional act of service. Ryan, an emergency medical technician, saved the life of a fellow KU student on the first day of classes.

As he was walking out of Boehm last fall, he noticed a female KU student under distress and quickly took action.

Ryan administered CPR for approximately 30 minutes until KU police and Kutztown Emergency Transport arrived.

For his heroic act, President Kenneth Hawkinson awarded him the first ever Presidential Citation award for his “exceptional act of service that directly benefits the well-being of others,” according to the KU website.

Baron is from Garwood, N.J. He attended the Academy for Allied Health Sciences, which was named one of the best schools in the nation by U.S. News.

Ryan said, “The school’s curriculum was extremely rigorous but prepared me immensely for the adversity I would experience in college.”

The high school he attended did not offer any sports, so Ryan joined the football team as well as track and field at Arthur L. Johnson High School, where he excelled in athletics.

He was also a Maxwell football award winner for his endeavors on and off the athletic field.

It was during his junior year of high school when Ryan earned his EMT certification.

This was no easy task for him, it took many hours of class time and course work to achieve this certification.

Ryan said, “I wanted to practice a form of medicine because it interested me and it was a way to help people.”

When it came to choosing a university to further his academic studies, Ryan chose KU.

With his background in emergency medicine, he chose to major in biology with the track of pre-medical as an arduous challenge for himself.

He was also offered a football scholarship to extend his athletic career, but what really caught his eye was the biology department at KU.

“I saw the highly qualified professors the biology department had along with their excellent facilities. I saw myself obtaining a great background of studies from the whole university for medical school,” he said.

Since being at KU, Ryan has worked relentlessly on his academics, resulting in a GPA well above a 3.0

for close to three years.

He has played in four games over his athletic career, but if not for an injury suffered during fall practices in 2015, he would have seen more playing time.

Ryan is currently preparing to send out his medical school applications in the hopes of achieving his dream.

He hopes to one day of open his own private practice as an orthopedic surgeon to continue helping others.