Thousands of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students celebrated their graduation Sunday at Panther Arena, including Bella Lipski, daughter of Milwaukee fire Chief Aaron Lipski. “I’m so excited. It was awesome. A bunch of my friends were here. My whole family was here. I couldn’t be happier,” Bella Lipski, a UWM alum, said. Bella Lipski earned her bachelor’s degree in occupational science and technology, with plans to focus on improving mental health support for firefighters. “For firefighters, they’re working every day, and they’re experiencing all of these different traumas. They’re seeing all these things, and while they’re responding to traumas,” Bella Lipski said. She shared that her father, Aaron Lipski, inspired her career path. “I can feel how proud he is of me every day. And it means so, so much to me,” Bella Lipski said. Aaron Lipski expressed his pride in his daughter and reflected on the challenges firefighters face. “I was touched that, you know, she’s been watching, right? And she’s been seeing things that a lot of the firefighters that I’ve worked with over the years who have suffered, some of them to the worst final outcome,” Aaron Lipski said. The National Institute of Sciences reports that 40% of firefighters experience significant levels of anxiety and depression. Aaron Lipski emphasized the importance of mental health programs to retain firefighters and support their well-being. “We lost, like, I think almost 30 people just retired midcareer. They weren’t at pension or nothing. You know, there were six or seven years in there. Just put their hands up and said, ‘I can’t keep doing this.’ And, that, that really got our attention,” Aaron Lipski said. Bella Lipski hopes her work will help people better understand the emotional toll firefighters endure. “I think I just want people to take away that firefighters are human too. They’re the people that we look to when there’s a problem and when we’re in pain or we’re scared, but they have feelings too,” Bella Lipski said.