Cries for help echoed down the corridors of Knapp Hall Monday night.

“Are you OK? Are you OK? Somebody help me!”

No one was injured, though. Sam Arnold, sophomore in exercise and sport science, was instructing a group of students on CPR techniques.

This isn’t the first CPR course Arnold has instructed at Iowa State.

“When I finish this week I will have certified about 50 students during the 10 scheduled classes,” said Arnold, who has been certified to perform CPR since he was 16. “They will be certified in airway object removal, CPR and rescue breathing.”

Arnold teaches students to perform life-saving techniques on infant and adult mannequins. The mannequins and Arnold’s services are paid for by certification costs, which students pay. The entire process costs $20 and takes about three hours to complete.

Arnold has had a few real-life experiences in which he was required to use CPR.

“When I was a volunteer firefighter in Leon, Iowa, I performed CPR on a smoke-inhalation victim while we were in route to the hospital,” he said.

Arnold said he was first interested in CPR when he was a lifeguard in Leon, but it was not until February that he received his certification to instruct CPR from the American Heart Association.

Corey Sievers, freshman in pre-business, said he attended the class to collect extra credit points for his Zoology 155 class.

“It turned out to be very informative,” Sievers said. “I didn’t expect to learn the techniques for a choking adult, or all of the techniques used on infants.

“A person just never knows when he or she is going to need it,” he said. “I’m glad I took the time to learn it.”