Emergency Management Frequently Asked Questions

The EMHS 470 Internship is an elective course and you are not required to complete an internship to complete the program.

An internship can be very beneficial to students who have not yet been employed in a professional Emergency Management-related position, or for the working professional to gain experience as an additional project while working for their current employer.

EM students are not eligible for an internship until they have completed at least 50% of the courses in the EM program. This allows the student to have a better foundation of EM principles, resulting in  a more beneficial and insightful internship experience. This also ensures that the EM program provides a valuable contribution to the employer and that the student positively represents the TMCC’s EM Program. 

It is also possible to complete an internship with a current employer, but the project must be time-limited, must be supported by specific goals and deliverables rather than completion of routine activity within the job.

If you choose to complete an internship (whether in connection with the fall, spring or summer semesters), the Program or the student can look for an opportunity with an Emergency Management-oriented agency.  In response to such an arrangement, a contract will be developed between the student, the employer and TMCC's Internship Office. Because it can take up to one month to complete this process,  students should plan accordingly. 

The Capstone Course must be completed during the last semester of the Program and EMHS 425 is a prerequisite for the Capstone course. If, it is not feasible for a student to complete EMHS 425 prior to taking the Capstone course, the Program will allow these two courses to be taken simultaneously in the last semester in the Program. 

Yes. If you do not have a background in emergency response that includes training, education and experience in Incident Command System (ICS), National Incident Management System (NIMS), and Emergency Operations Centers (EOC), then you will need to take a prerequisite course (EMHS 200 ICS/NIMS/EOC).

This course teaches the background, importance, function and language of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.

Applicants may substitute the following course certificates for the EMHS 200 requirement:

• FEMA Emergency Management Institute courses: IS 100, 200, 700, 2200 (formerly 775) and 800 (all certificates required)

TMCC does not offer graduate degrees; however, the EM Program has entered into an articulation agreement with the University of Alaska, Fairbanks for their Master of Security and Disaster Management (MSDM) Program. Some of the benefits for our EM graduates include:

• In-state tuition rates for TMCC graduates
• No application fee
• Transfer of two 400-level courses which can be taken at TMCC and transferred to the MSDM program reducing the number of credits to be taken at UAF from 30 to 24. Important Note: The additional 400-level courses must be completed after graduation from the TMCC EM program. This will result in savings for those two courses.

See also: UAF's Master of Security and Disaster Management (MSDM) program

Full-time college load is considered 15 credits per semester. At 15 credits per semester, a student could complete the BAS degree in 4 semesters, or approximately 2 years. However, it is anticipated that most students will be working in some capacity in emergency response, the military or otherwise, so completion would take longer.

It all depends upon you, the student, and the amount of course work you are able to commit to.

Currently there is no programmatic accreditation for these disciplines; however, TMCC is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), a regional accreditation body.

The NWCCU has granted full accreditation to the Bachelor of Applied Science degree for TMCC.

Yes. The application is simple and mainly to verify that prospective students meet the two-year degree requirement and the EMHS 200 prerequisite.

Recommended course sequence and degree requirements can be found in the TMCC College Catalog: EM BAS degree requirements

The EM Program is offered online using the Canvas learning management system.

We developed the degree online with the understanding that many of our prospective students are already working and the online opportunity would make achieving this degree much more available.