All it took was one visit to Humber Polytechnic to sit in on a Paramedic program class to convince Steve Urszenyi to enrol.

Urszenyi had always been interested in the emergency responder world. He worked as a lifeguard in the summer and remembers as a teenager administering first aid to a person who had been struck crossing the street.

A friend was attending Humber and urged Urszenyi to tag along.

“He suggested that I come to Humber and sit in on the class to see if I liked it. I did and that was it,” said Urszenyi.  

He immediately applied and was accepted into what was then known as the Ambulance and Emergency Care program. That set him on a path that had him spend 40 years on the frontlines of emergency response.  

During those four decades of services, he received the Governor General of Canada EMS Exemplary Service Medal and 30-Year Bar and became commander of the Ontario Emergency Medical Assistance Team, which is the province’s medical crisis team.

Urszenyi also received the Ontario Public Service Amethyst Award for Outstanding Achievement for medical operations leadership at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games.

After coming from a university setting, Urszenyi loved the smaller classes at Humber. His instructor Doug Leonard had an immediate and positive impact on him.

“His style of teaching was so personal and he was so motivated to teach, it was inspiring,” said Urszenyi. “I couldn’t help but fall in love with Humber and the program. The depth of the curriculum really surprised me.”

In October of 1982, Urszenyi went for his debut ride out as part of his required 400 hours of ambulance ride-along. A call came in that turned out to be Urszenyi’s first-ever paramedic response to injured persons. It was caused by a 550-kilogram bomb that was planted at nearby Litton Industries by an anarchist group.

“What struck me was the enormity of the size and scale of the response. It was surreal. But it also reinforced my hunger and desire to do this work.”

The ride-alongs made an impression on the young Urszenyi. He saw how paramedics made a tremendous impact on the community and it was something he wanted to be a part of. Less than a year into his job, he helped deliver a healthy baby girl. That stuck with him – helping bring a new life into the world as part of his career.
 
Urszenyi was nominated for a Premier’s Award in 2024. The annual awards are given to graduates from colleges across the province in recognition of their outstanding accomplishments. Both the winners and the nominees have attained professional success after graduation while actively involved in the community and making notable contributions to their respective sectors.

The multi-talented Urszenyi also got to indulge in his love of writing during his career as he penned a regular column for Canadian Paramedicine, a national paramedic magazine, to share his expertise and advance the paramedic profession in Canada.  

He leaned on his years of experience on the frontlines – including his training as a tactical medic and a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives specialist – when he sat down to write his debut novel Perfect Shot, which follows special agent Alexandra Martel. The 2023 thriller earned nominations for three prestigious literary awards - the International Thriller Writers 2024 Best First Novel Award, the Crime Writers of Canada 2024 Best Crime First Novel Award and the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer 2024 Prize for Mystery.

He followed his debut with 2024’s Out in the Cold while his third novel Blood Oath is scheduled to be released this November.

“I think all that experience and my background has served me quite well when it comes to writing the character of Alexandra,” he said.

Find out more about Urszenyi and his novels by visiting his website.

Humber Polytechnic is more than just a place for higher education. It's a place where students come to reach their full potential; where they can find the person they knew was in them all along. In this Spotlight Series, part of Humber's The You You Knew Was In You campaign, we're highlighting current students and alumni who found the you that was in them, and gained their edge at Humber. Learn more by visiting humber.ca/you.