Students' dreams are on hold with news that medical training schools statewide are closing their doors, including the Florida Medical Training Institute’s Melbourne campus.
According to a corporate rep from the school, running them became not profitable.
Now the question is where can students go to keep their class credits without losing them and starting over?
FMTI has five campuses closing across the state, including the one on Babcock Street in Melbourne, where for sale signs now don the property.
Students and instructors said they just found out last week about the school being shut down, cutting off the current paramedic curriculum midway through for many of the 50-plus students.
Fifty-one-year-old Laurie Eldredge waited until her two children were grown and saved thousands of dollars to study and become an EMT.
"We almost made it to mid-term, but we didn't quite, so we found we might have to start the whole program over," she said.
"Nobody really saw it coming. The students, the faculty, the staff," said instructor John Ringlebe.
Ringlebe is a lieutenant with Palm Bay Fire Rescue and part-time FMTI instructor for the past eight years.
He said when the Lincoln Group recently took over, they thought big expansion plans were on the way.
"We had been coercing together to talk about what we were going to do going forward with new classes and curriculum and schedule and facilities," he said.
Students who don’t finish -- like Laurie -- got refunds. Her $8,000 in tuition came in the mail Monday.
But she's not giving up her dream -- even if it takes more months to finish.
"I don't want to give up on it, I've always wanted to be a paramedic."
The Lincoln corporate rep says some students will graduate by the Dec. 31 deadline.
We're told the Orlando Medical Institute is stepping in to help those who didn't finish their classes.