WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 captioning in progress 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 music 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:12.000 My name is Divine Jocobo, I work at Lynn Benton Juvenile Detention Center, I graduated year 2016. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:22.000 Hi, I'm Mayra Mendoza, work with Polk County Community Corrections, and I graduated in 2018. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:27.000 Hello, my name is Kevin Jones, I work for the FBI 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:34.000 here in Salem and I graduated in 2012. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:40.000 Hello, my name is Sabrina Hunter. I graduated from Western in 2007 so probably 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:45.000 the longest. I'm a detective with Salem Police Department. 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:48.000 Good morning, my name is Sergeant Eric Dobson I'm with the Clatsop 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:55.000 County Sharif's Office. I unfortunately am the only non alumni on so that's why they had to put that slash, "career." 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:61.000 What I wanted to start with is, could you please explain to me what you wanted to do when you were in high school? 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:08.000 If you can think back, and you were in these seats, what did you wanna be when you grew up? 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:15.000 I wanted to be a teacher. I loved outdoor school. I joined AmeriCorps immediately after high school because I wanted to teach. 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:23.000 And I thought it was the coolest thing and adult life just sort of drug me in a different direction, but initially teaching was my thing. 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:28.000 Okay, I'm the opposite. I did not want to go to college whatsoever. 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:36.000 I graduated a year early, I didn't take any college prep classes, I didn't take the 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:42.000 SATs, anything like that, so I had absolutely no plans in high school. I was just winging it. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:48.000 So that's how we're similar in the sense of, I knew I was gonna go to college. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:54.000 I did not know that I was actually gonna finish college so I had really low expectations going into the whole thing. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:61.000 I didn't have any other plans. I grew up in southeast Portland so I was like, "I guess I could go to college for a little bit until that 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:08.000 whatever, doesn't work out maybe." But I got here and then I just kind of took a different path. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:14.000 When I was in high school, I was very focused in criminal justice and law. I think 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:23.000 I was between FBI and attorney and then after many years I started narrowing it down. 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:32.000 In high school, I wanted to be a police officer so I came here to Western for the Criminal Justice program 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:35.000 and I ended up working with juveniles. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:41.000 Jennifer: So my next point is, what changed your mind? How did you get from 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:55.000 passion." How did you get from that to where you are today? 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:61.000 Eric: During a shadow, I was getting to experience what 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:07.000 adults were like and parents were pretty god awful and I didn't wanna deal with parents of students. I loved teaching, didn't 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:12.000 wanna deal with the parents. So sort of pushed me away from that. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:18.000 I walked the wilderness for a while and figured out that I wanted to do something for the community and 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:23.000 my personality, my temperament, is pretty straight forward and pretty loud so 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:27.000 law enforcement seemed to be the only place that would accept me, that I wouldn't make everyone cringe. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:31.000 laughter 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:38.000 Sabrina: What changed my mind is I dove right into the workforce after I graduated high school. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:44.000 At the age of 16, 17 I automatically assumed I would be making tons of money. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:52.000 That was not the reality of things. So in talking further with my family, my family has a background in law enforcement, 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:56.000 they kind of talked me into trying out some classes at a community college. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:62.000 After taking those, I fell in love with law enforcement. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:10.000 Kevin: So I think mine was more of a sense of, I didn't have any other options so I just randomly started. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:17.000 I was crazy enough to apply and that kind of is the biggest thing that I found in the sense of, 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:21.000 there was an internship that the FBI was offering when I was still a student here 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:26.000 because in order to go through the Criminal Justice program and get your degree, you have to do an internship. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:32.000 So I was crazy enough one day, I was sitting in the library here, and I was on the FBI's website. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:36.000 And I'm like, "Oh man, I'm on the FBI's website. They're probably watching me right now." 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:40.000 And I'm all weirded out because I didn't know anybody in the FBI, never even spoke to 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:44.000 anybody in the FBI, but they were opening it up for interns 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:48.000 and I was like, "Well I guess that would be kind of cool." So I applied to that 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:56.000 and then a couple days later I got an email back from the FBI and I was like, "Oh my, this is insane, this is crazy." 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:63.000 So it just kind of progressed that way. It wasn't a plan, it wasn't an intention, more so than I would 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:08.000 randomly one day was like, "oh the FBI would be kind of cool," and I just applied 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:13.000 and here I am so that's kind of how that worked out. 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:20.000 Mayra: For me, in high school, I took a couple criminal justice classes. Once I got here to Western 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:24.000 I started taking more focus classes for parole and probation. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:33.000 Back then, I started with just kind of focusing on supervising juveniles 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:38.000 and I did my internship at a juvenile parole probation office. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:45.000 With time, like he said, I just started applying and I actually ended up working now with adults, 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:52.000 eliminating the family and parent aspect so now I don't have to deal with the parent as much. 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:59.000 But I kind just tried to switch focus with the focus classes that I took here. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:07.000 Divine: For me, I came here to Western. Started taking the criminal justice classes. 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:11.000 There were some that kind of touched on juveniles and that kind of piqued my interest. 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:21.000 I started working at Lane County Juvenile Detention as a part time staff my junior year here, I believe 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:25.000 and I kind of just fell in love with the work. 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:31.000 Don't mean to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty good at working with juveniles so it's hard to not like something that you're good at. 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:38.000 And then, the job just kind of fell into my lap. My senior year, they had a job opening. 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:44.000 Didn't necessarily meet all of the qualifications, but a lot of my coworkers were like, "hey, we really like you, 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:50.000 we think you'd do really good job. Just go ahead an apply." Lo and behold, I got the job. 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:55.000 Jennifer: So I think what you're hearing here is really interesting in the field of criminal justice is 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:60.000 a lot of people come in and they're not quite sure what they wanna do. You know that 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:05.000 you like crime dramas, you know that criminal justice is an interest for you, but 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:09.000 really maybe you don't have it quite nailed down exactly what it is that you wanna do. 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:14.000 And there are classes that you take that open your eyes to something you didn't realized that you loved 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:21.000 or an experience where you find yourself on the FBI website wondering if you're gonna be on a watchlist from that moment on. 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:28.000 What's funny is in criminal justice, you're gonna be doing a ton of research papers and you're gonna be Googling stuff like, 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:37.000 because you're gonna need that for a paper or something so your search history gonna be really dark 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:39.000 while you're in college. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:44.000 So anyway, an opportunity, it presents itself and I think that's 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:47.000 an amazing thing about criminal justice is that you can go in 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:51.000 blind and come out with purpose. Something that you're super, super 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:54.000 good at and that you're really amazing. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:62.000 Tell me about your jobs. What do you do, what do you love, just anything that they would love to hear about your job specifically. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:12.000 Divine: What I love about my job. I love working with youth. We get kids that come in 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:21.000 who unfortunately don't have basic skills. Like example, they may not know how to eat food with utensils. 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:26.000 So just teaching them and coaching them that simple skill and then watching them 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:30.000 progress, learn that skill, use that skill, and seeing them benefit from that skill. 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:35.000 It's pretty amazing to me, it's rewarding to me and obviously 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:40.000 there's more complex skills that we're able to teach and just watch the growth 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:47.000 and then really, when the kids take the time, and they say, "Hey, thank you. You made a difference in my life." 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:52.000 That to me is awesome. I get phone calls from time to time. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:55.000 Kids have to jog my memory, 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:60.000 I'm like, "oh yeah, I remember you. And just having to be able to have those short conversations and just 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:05.000 the impact that you're able to have those lives is amazing to me. 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:10.000 I feel that the kids who are involved in the juvenile justice system, 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:16.000 their guardians, their parents, somehow someway kind of failed them. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:24.000 Not to completely excuse them from their responsibility, but it's just cool kind of step in temporarily and 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:29.000 set them up for success. 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:35.000 Mayra: So I work in parole and probation. I supervise specifically, right now, the domestic violence case load. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:44.000 The thing I like the most about my job is, so I work with people over a long period of time. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:48.000 It can be anywhere from a year to three years, sometimes even longer. 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:56.000 People who are being sentenced straight out of court, people who are coming out of prison and are dealing 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:58.000 with the parole board. 00:09:58.000 --> 00:09:64.000 Over time, you get to develop a relationship with them. You get to really know them, their struggles, know 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:11.000 When they're making progress and just really changing their lives. And that is very rewarding. 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:16.000 And I've also gotten calls even after they're done with supervision just to kind of, 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:24.000 they just wanna check in and give you a life update about how well they're doing and just maintaining a healthy lifestyle 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:30.000 and just seeing the changes in these people's lives, it's very rewarding within itself and just knowing that 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:37.000 you're also kind of a part of making these changes. It's very rewarding. 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:47.000 Kevin: So I'm the only FBI intel component in the Salem RA, so we have 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:50.000 The main office for the FBI is in Portland, but then we have 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:57.000 Salem, Eugene, Bend, Pendleton, and Medford, so we have what are called, "RA"s or "Resident Agencies" 00:10:57.000 --> 00:10:63.000 in all of those cities. So I'm the intel body on loan to Salem 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:07.000 so what that means is that I spend time finding people, places and things. 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:11.000 So we have something walk in, it's a new case, and they say, "hey we have 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:18.000 to find this person, this thing, this location, and here's the few clues that we have to do it. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:22.000 So I work with the agents and say, "okay well, what do we know? What's the statute that we're trying to 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:30.000 fulfill? What are we trying to find evidence of?" Which as been very rewarding in the sense of every day's a little bit different. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:35.000 I'm also a member of our FBI evidence response team. So that's kind of like the 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:43.000 CSI or NCIS, I don't know I forget all the shows, but anyways, it's that kind of stuff 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:48.000 and there's crime scenes that our team that get activated and we go out and respond to 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:54.000 and we have to collect evidence and we have to hold it to the highest 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:60.000 standard so that way it's admissible in court and that way we don't screw up and 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:10.000 miss something that we should've found when we were on scene. So I've been doing that for 6 years. I've been with the for 11 years now. 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:17.000 Sabrina: As I mentioned earlier, I'm a detective. My unit that I work for is called the, "Special Victims Unit" 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:19.000 aside: I know, it's pretty cool 00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:29.000 So I specialize in sex crimes and child abuse so it is a very dark and heavy caseload. That's all I investigate every single day. 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:35.000 It's primarily, I work in an office most of the day. 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:45.000 I work very closely with DHS, Liberty House is a child advocacy center in Salem. Partnering agencies, we all collaborate together. 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:49.000 A typical day is I start with morning meetings. 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:55.000 actually today, I'm going to the Liberty House to watch some forensic interviews of some child victims. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:58.000 I'm also working on a search warrant. 00:12:58.000 --> 00:12:64.000 One of your teachers, I don't know where he went, was talking to me about writing. 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:11.000 Writing is super important you guys. I spend almost all my day at a computer typing reports, typing search warrants. 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:20.000 It's daunting, but I love, love, love my cases. They are rewarding. 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.000 I feel like I'm actually making a difference with kids that have been abused. 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:30.000 The very vulnerable population that doesn't have a voice and can't defend themselves. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:36.000 Eric: So I don't like to hold still very well so I'm dual certified. I'm 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:39.000 certified in corrections and enforcement which means I get to 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:43.000 be inside our jail and I also get to turn on the "woo woo" lights and drive really fast. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:48.000 It is honestly, don't say it during the interview process, but 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:51.000 it's honestly one of the funnest parts of the job. 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:56.000 Really, I moved out to the coast to do law enforcement because I wanted to work in a smaller community. 00:13:56.000 --> 00:13:61.000 It took about three years. I got to know everyone in our community. They got to know me 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:08.000 so when someone's in crisis, they know me, they can look me in the eyes and say, "I know this person's a safe space to be." 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:14.000 Even if they've done a criminal act, I might have to arrest them at the end, but they know that I'm gonna treat them fairly. That 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:19.000 is what I go home with every single day. That is bread and butter of my existence. 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:26.000 I have since moved into a position where I get to teach all of our new deputies that style of law enforcement 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:31.000 and it has been an amazing job. So I love it when I see my new deputies. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:35.000 They're out on the road and they're doing something I'm like, "that was me, that was me right there." 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:38.000 And they're taking an extra moment to chill out and just be like, "hey, 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:41.000 we can calm the situation down and talk about it first before we go to handcuffs." 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:45.000 So it's every single day, I'm very grateful for my job. 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:49.000 Jennifer: Any questions from our audience at the moment? 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:52.000 If you have something, just pop up that hand. I'm happy to run out to you. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:59.000 I wanna know what from your education experience, here at Western, Academy, 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:06.000 at any point that you were out of high school and now grown up in this learning world. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:11.000 What was it that you took with you? Like a class that you took, an experience that you had, 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:21.000 just something after high school were you were like, "I didn't think I was gonna use this in my job, but man, really was something." 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:27.000 One thing that sticks out to me is 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:38.000 the ethics class that I took here. Some of the examples they gave I was like, "yeah right, that's never gonna happen." Like a senior 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:45.000 co worker would put me in a tough position where I have to be the new guy and I have to report him. 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:51.000 Lo and behold, that happened three months in and he was one of our most seasoned staff 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:60.000 and I just had a bad gut feeling that what he had done wasn't appropriate so I, 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:08.000 I think it was because of the class that I took and the foundation that that class had instilled in me. I had a 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:16.000 foundation to go off of and make that leap and report him. Go to my supervisor and talk about what happened. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:26.000 Mayra: I took a lot of very helpful classes throughout my criminal justice schooling, 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:33.000 but probably, it was mentioned before, just 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:40.000 the writing within itself, the research papers, I really thought that once I was done with college I'd be 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:45.000 done writing reports and essays, but that was just the beginning. 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:52.000 We do a lot of report writing. So definitely having those writing classes and 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:59.000 knowing what you're looking for and how to put it together. It's gonna be really important because 00:16:59.000 --> 00:16:64.000 it's going to be equired in many different areas of this field. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:14.000 Divine: I'll add what they're saying. Writing, writing, writing, it's really important. We do a lot of that too. 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:17.000 Kevin: Writing. 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:18.000 laughter 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:24.000 Yeah, I write a lot too, and it is sound advice all around. 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:33.000 So two things really stick out to me. One was when you have an advisor here and you're going through the Criminal Justice program, 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:39.000 the advisor is your best friend to try to get into the workforce and to your end goal. 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:47.000 I had an advisor, Dr. Murphy, he still teaches here and I remember going and sitting in his office and we were spitballing ideas 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:50.000 He said, "where do you wanna apply?" And I'm like, "I don't know." 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:55.000 He's like, "where do you wanna apply? Here's some options." And I was like, "okay I guess I'll apply to 00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:61.000 there, there, there." And he's like, okay, "is there anything else that you'd wanna do." And I'm like, 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:10.000 Who say's that? Who say's, "go look into the CIA," or "FBI," or the "DEA." 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:15.000 These are all just things that are out there that nobody knows where they're at or how to get in, right? 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:19.000 So when I was going through the process with the FBI 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:27.000 one of the hiring components was you had to get a polygraph, a lie detector. So I went up to Portland, I did the polygraph, 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:32.000 and then I left and I was freaking out and I'm like, "that's it, I'm not getting in. Nope, that went bad." 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:35.000 I wasn't lying about anything, but it was just a really uncomfortable feeling. 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:40.000 So I emailed him and I'm like, "are you in your office?" And he say's, "yes, come on by." 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:45.000 And I sat in his office for like 15 minutes, he was like, "calm down, it's okay. Calm down," and I'm like, 00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:57.000 and then he was able to calm me down. He said, "well, just let me know when you hear back," and then I heard back and I passed. 00:18:57.000 --> 00:18:63.000 But having that guidance from somebody who's been in the workforce, who is on my side, and helping me, that was 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:11.000 that was really big. The other thing I learned when I was here, and this is an overall experience, was time management. 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:16.000 It's so underrated and being able to, 00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:20.000 I'm not gonna say master time management, but learn how to manage my time well, 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.000 has been critical to my overall mental health I think 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:29.000 because it's allowed me to go work for the FBI full time, but then also teach 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:35.000 online classes for Western on nights and weekends and it's allowed me to make that balance where I'm not 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:41.000 still just going out of my mind because I'm super stressed about everything. Time management, I would learn 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:49.000 what you need to do to make sure all your ducks are in a row and that they stay that way so you can enjoy the experience. 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:56.000 Sabrina: I'm gonna piggyback on kind of what everybody's talked about. I know we all have been harping on writing. I'll explain to you why 00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:58.000 writing is important, at least in my job. 00:19:58.000 --> 00:19:64.000 I heard the same thing. Everybody was like, "you need to take writing," and I was like, "yeah whatever, I'm not gonna listen." 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:11.000 But it really hit home for me when I started having to write police reports and then those reports were sent in to 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:16.000 different agencies, the district attorney's office, they were read in court, 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:20.000 defense attorney's would start picking apart my report writing 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:26.000 and nothing is more embarrassing than standing up on the stand and them attacking you and saying, 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:36.000 so many people reads your reports, you guys, and you never know who's gonna look at them. 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:40.000 And it's also important to your victims to accurately 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:47.000 depict what happened to them. So if you're trying to just get through a report as fast as you can before the end of your shift 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:51.000 and you leave out key details that could mean that you don't add in all the elements 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:56.000 to a crime, and like a said, they go to court and everything and you don't put that in your report, 00:20:56.000 --> 00:20:60.000 it could mean that a criminal doesn't get charged with something. 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:03.000 Another thing with the practicum program, 00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:09.000 Dr. Gingerich is still here, surprisingly, but he was my advisor way back in the day 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:17.000 and he placed me with Oregon State Police. I wanted to be a patrol cop which I did for many years. 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:22.000 So he plugged me in based on my personality. He thought this agency would fit me best. 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:27.000 When I started there, they stuck me in an office filing papers. It was awful 00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:33.000 and I wasn't getting the experience that I thought so I was comfortable enough to go to him and say, "I'm not getting anything 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:36.000 out of this practicum. Give me some action" 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:39.000 So he contacted state police for me on my behalf 00:21:39.000 --> 00:21:46.000 and I immediately started diving into their detective unit and on the road and that's kind of what tied it all together for me. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:55.000 Knowing that he cared that much to make my experience here enjoyable and get me the best fit. 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.000 Eric: Statistics, I'm not gonna lie to you I am not a math person. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.000 I did not when I was forced to take statistics for my degree. 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:09.000 I'm like, "are you kidding me? I will never, ever, ever, absolutely ever, use this," 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:14.000 and the second I started trying to work with upper management to change our programs, 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:19.000 I found that statistics magically came into play and because I understood it, I was able to be confident 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:23.000 and I got some really cool stuff changed in our agency. 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:27.000 At The Academy, you're gonna go through scenario based training 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:33.000 when you get there and the scenarios are super obnoxious and I got into it with one of our instructors. 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:39.000 I'm like, "I will never, in my life, have a call that is: someone is being loud on a street." 00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:42.000 This was me being really naive, that is 95 percent of the calls 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:43.000 laughs 00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:45.000 every call every night 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:50.000 Eric: The first time I got that call, I'm all like, "I need to contact that instructor and apologize for being mouthy that day." 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:55.000 So the scenarios, you're gonna think they're ridiculous, but they are honest to god most of the calls you're gonna get 00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.000 and there's a reason why the academy does that. 00:22:59.000 --> 00:22:65.000 Jennifer: I would love to stand up here and tell you that you have to come to our program and you have to get a degree from Western 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:10.000 in order to be successful in Criminal Justice and that's what I'm telling you. That's the official word. 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:15.000 But, the reality is, when you leave high school 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:21.000 there's many pathways. You don't have to have a college degree to be a police officer working corrections. 00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:29.000 You don't have to have a college degree to work for a Victim's Services organization or be an advocate who works for CASA. 00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:36.000 It's not required, but you can tell from these experiences that when you go into your career 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:40.000 field with something like this, something substantial, a good foundation. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:46.000 It makes a huge difference in your perception of the field, if your ability to do your job, 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:51.000 and even just learn the new things that you have to learn and I guess that's my second question: when you 00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:55.000 went to your respective positions, and they already alluded to The Academy here, 00:23:56.000 --> 00:23:60.000 what are some specialized training that you got, some really cool things that happened after 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:05.000 college that you got to experience as you went into your career fields? 00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:11.000 Eric: I got it first! So I'm our Use of Force instructor for our agency. That means 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:15.000 that I do a lot of caselaw work and I get to talk to everybody and do our 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.000 force response reviews. There's a really cool 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.000 program outside that's called, "Force Science" and 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:27.000 they are really, really nerdy. They get really into the weeds on the math stuff 00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:30.000 and on the science and it's one of the coolest things to explain 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:37.000 why officers do the things that they do in situations and to be able to say that I've been certified through Force Science is 00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:39.000 been a pretty amazing experience. 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:47.000 Sabrina: Training and opportunities since college, I've had tons. The Academy, I'm 00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:52.000 probably the rare person that loved The Academy. I know, it's 16 weeks, everybody 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:58.000 describes it as miserable, but I really enjoyed it. I took it as an opportunity to get 00:24:58.000 --> 00:24:64.000 different perspectives, different ways of doing things, extra training. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:08.000 When I started with my agency, 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:15.000 I was a part of our Domestic Violence team, our cadet unit, I'm a field training officer, at least while I was on the road. 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:21.000 I teach report writing, I'm trying to think what else I do, training, 00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:26.000 I've been sent out of state to Texas for domestic violence courses. 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:32.000 We have special training. Did you guys know you need extra training to interview little kids? 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:36.000 Like if a little kid says they've been sexually abused. 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:39.000 aside: I don't know if you're forensically trained or not. 00:25:39.000 --> 00:25:46.000 But you have to go to a 40 hour training in Alabama to interview kids on what happened to them. 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:51.000 So the training opportunities are endless. I literally take webinars almost weekly. 00:25:51.000 --> 00:25:56.000 I'm just totally a nerd and I like learning new things. 00:25:56.000 --> 00:25:61.000 Kevin: So I think the two main things 00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:09.000 that I really have enjoyed as far as additional training has been, as part of our evidence response team, you have to go back 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:16.000 to Virginia for two weeks to do what's called, "ERT Basic," which that's where they teach you 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:26.000 the how and why we go through the steps that we do. We actually have a huge warehouse with houses inside of the warehouse. 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:31.000 I'll say it again: there's houses inside of a warehouse in Virginia 00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:37.000 that you walk into, there's a classroom on the side where we spent about two or three days just going through these 00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:41.000 the classroom training. And they're like, "alright, well lets go practice," and I'm like, 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:51.000 then you walk in this room and there's a neighborhood. It was incredible. And being able to go through that 00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:56.000 and all of these houses were furnished, anyways, that was really cool. 00:26:56.000 --> 00:26:63.000 And then I think the other one was learning how to conduct advanced research 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:07.000 in the sense of everybody knows how to use Google 00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:10.000 and try to like, "oh let's find this person and find out what they do," 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:16.000 and try to build a profile on them, but using the tools that the FBI has at their disposal 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:24.000 and use them effectively has been really, really interesting and learning how to master those tools that we have in hand. 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:27.000 It's been really rewarding as well. 00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:31.000 Mayra: So for parole and probation, we also go to The Academy, ours is 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:40.000 a lot shorter, we go for 6 weeks. We learn case law, report writings, testifying in court, 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:48.000 defensive tactics, a lot of physical training. After that, at our own departments we get assigned a trainer 00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:52.000 for I wanna say a year to 18 months. 00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:56.000 So this trainer is just your mentor, your guide to help you 00:27:56.000 --> 00:27:61.000 while you're trying to get settled and learning everything because there's a lot to learn fast 00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:11.000 and so this is kind of your go to person for help and to make sure that you're not creating big liabilities with everything you're doing. 00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:20.000 After that, throughout every single year, we continue on with our training to maintain our certification, 00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:25.000 but we definitely do a lot of training. 00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:31.000 Divine: Training, it's been very rewarding. I'm 00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:36.000 somebody who considers myself a full time student. I continue to 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:44.000 learn, expand both in my professional career and in my personal life. I'm somebody that constantly likes to learn new things. 00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:51.000 So working with the juvenile department, there's always trainings that you're able to go to. When I first started, 00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:57.000 there's a detention academy that you have to go through. It's not 16 weeks, it's only a week long, but it was cool 00:28:57.000 --> 00:28:62.000 you were able to kind of learn the basics. 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:07.000 Let's see, else? CSI, Life Skills Crisis Intervention, that was a training 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:12.000 it was like a week long training and that was amazing. The stuff that I learned there 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:20.000 deescalation tactics I was able to learn there like when someone is in a crisis, I now know how to walk up to them 00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:27.000 and be ale to verbally deescalate the person. It works 9 times out of 10 I would say. 00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:36.000 But really just the trining opportunities that you get are amazing and I think that's, as you can see here, true across the board. 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:41.000 Eric: I just wanna say real quick, we're all getting paid to do this. These trainings, it's not that 00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:47.000 we're getting sent away and they're like, "this is your vacation, come do it on your own." Our agencies are saying, "we're gong to send you, 00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:51.000 everything's taken care of, have fun, and your paycheck will come," so we get to go play. 00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:59.000 Like being a grenadier, I get to explode stuff every two years and I get paid to do that. I think that's one of the coolest things. 00:29:59.000 --> 00:29:66.000 Sabrina: Yeah, we get paid to go to the range, free quarter in the shoot, free bullets, or drive fast, it's fun. 00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:08.000 Divine: I think we're all getting paid right now 00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:10.000 laughs 00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:15.000 Jennifer: Yes, we are all getting paid right now. They are not getting paid to tell you this though. This is their own opinions, 00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.000 I have not slipped them any money under the table to tell you how awesome criminal justice is. 00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:27.000 Alright, from our audience, any thoughts or questions or thoughts for our panelists? Yes, ma'am, hold on I"ll come to you. 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:36.000 Speaker: So what made the click for you like deciding that this what you wanted to do. When was that turning moment for you? 00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:44.000 Sabrina: I can answer that. I sat in classrooms for years looking at PowerPoints and reading books and I kind of thought 00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:50.000 I would like to do this, but I wasn't 100 percent sure until I was thrown into my practicum 00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:55.000 and I got to actually experience what police officers do every day. I had an idea 00:30:56.000 --> 00:30:60.000 of it, but I didn't know until I actually went out and saw it for myself. 00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:06.000 Eric: I have a little bit of a different, I served in AmeriCorps. It was an amazing experience 00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:13.000 and then I went back out into the civilian world and I was getting a paycheck, I just didn't feel good to me like the AmeriCorps thing 00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:20.000 so it took me a while to figure out what branch of service was what I wanted to do and when I found law enforcement, 00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:22.000 it was where it was at. 00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:29.000 Speaker: How do you personally deal with burnout or overwhelming caseloads? 00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:33.000 Eric: I haven't gotten to that point yet, my bosses always keep telling me, 00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:43.000 If you can't tell, I'm a very excitable person so it's really hard to tamp my energy down. I've had staff, though, that I can see that. 00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:48.000 A lot of them, it's physical fitness. It's cliche, but it's true. 00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:52.000 You burn out a lot of stress by just doing something physical, it shuts your brain off for a little bit 00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:58.000 so you're not thinking about everything that's going on. So the physical fitness part really helps. 00:31:58.000 --> 00:31:68.000 Divine: I would say, having hobbies outside of your work field. Having friends outside of your work field. 00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:16.000 Having a good balance between those two friends, like friends in the field and then friends also outside of the field and just 00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:24.000 knowing, being able to self regulate. Like knowing when you're starting to, I wouldn't say maybe burnout for me personally, but 00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:29.000 maybe being really stressed out, just red flags going off in my head, my brain, and just 00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:33.000 going and doing things that I know are gonna refresh me. 00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:43.000 For me, that's snowboarding, soccer, working out, hanging out with friends that aren't in the field. 00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:48.000 Mayra: I'm going on my 4th year so I haven't experienced it yet, 00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:55.000 but even when, I used have a general case load and I got moved over to the domestic violence which is more 00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:60.000 of a specialty caseload so at any point, it's just important when you're feeling 00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.000 stressed or you're feeling overwhelmed to talk to your management 00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:11.000 so that they can help relieve some of that stress for you and to see what can be sorted out because you're not, there are other 00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:20.000 coworkers there that are there to help with my departments particularly which I really like. We really help each other 00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.000 whenever someone just needing extra assistance, the other one just picks up 00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:28.000 whatever's needed and then we just kind of help out each other like that, but you have to communicate 00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:31.000 and let them know what's going on. 00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:39.000 Kevin: Yeah, I think just communicating with, and being honest with yourself, and then just having a friend a coworker 00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:45.000 your parents, whoever it is, and just being honest when somebody asks, "hey, how's work going?" 00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:52.000 You're naturally, "everything's great, everything's awesome, thing's are perfect," but just taking a moment and stepping back 00:33:52.000 --> 00:33:55.000 and being like, "okay, actually it's not going that great right now," and just having 00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.000 somebody to chat with about that. I feel like that's been really helpful. 00:33:59.000 --> 00:33:67.000 How long did your college and academy career take before you were able to step out into the field? 00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:15.000 Jennifer: So all together counting after high school. From graduation till when you settled into your jobs, how much time? 00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:25.000 Mayra: So for me, I did my four years of college and I actually had started in the juvenile area. 00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:31.000 Monday after graduation, I started working at a juvenile detention center 00:34:31.000 --> 00:34:40.000 and I was there for maybe 6 months when my supervisor from my internship had reached out to me about job opening 00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:48.000 in the adult parole and probation. So I had submitted an application, I didn't have any experience working with adults, 00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:56.000 but I remembered the email he said, "apply, weirder things have happened," I applied, and that's where I've been since. 00:34:56.000 --> 00:34:62.000 Divine: I'll be quick and short. Listen to your professors, your advisors, 00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:07.000 I did that and I had a full time job my senior year here. 00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:16.000 So it was, I don't know, 3 or 4 years. I got a job my senior year here in school and that was due to 00:35:16.000 --> 00:35:20.000 me listening to my advisors, my professors, and the advice they were giving to me. 00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:27.000 Kevin: So my junior year, I had to do my internship that summer so I did my internship with the Bureau 00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:34.000 and then I did that for about a year and then about a three weeks until I graduated, I got a call from Portland, 00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:39.000 one of the recruiters from the FBI in Portland saying, "hey, we're about to post a few jobs, do you wanna know about them?" 00:35:39.000 --> 00:35:43.000 and I said, "well, yeah I do, I'm three weeks away from graduation." 00:35:43.000 --> 00:35:50.000 So the transition was pretty quick and I graduated here at the stadium on a Saturday at 1 00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:53.000 and then that night, I took a red eye to Virginia 00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:59.000 and then I showed up at The Academy on Sunday morning at like 8:30 in the morning 00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.000 and then I started working that Monday. 00:36:04.000 --> 00:36:10.000 Sabrina: My story's different. I was in college about 6 years. My community college credits did not transfer 00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:17.000 so I started over fresh here. It took me a few years after I graduated college to get a job in my field 00:36:17.000 --> 00:36:26.000 After that, when I was hired as a police officer, we did 10 weeks of in house training, 00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:39.000 Eric: So I went a little bit backwards. When I started, I got the job first. 00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:48.000 I went to The Academy and all of my training time, so it took about 12 14 months for me to get before I was on my own. 00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:55.000 At that point, I realized I really needed to get my schooling so instead of doing the smart thing, 00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.000 which is what you guys are all doing in this room, I got to do the struggle bus every single night 00:36:59.000 --> 00:36:65.000 or morning whenever my shift was ending and doing them both at the exact same time while still going through so 00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:08.000 don't recommend that route, it's a little burly. 00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:13.000 Speaker: Have you ever watched a TV show where you're job is featured in it and there'd be little things you'd 00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:18.000 pick at that'd bother you a bunch, if so, what would it be? 00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:20.000 Kevin: Alright, so that's my number one thing. 00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:22.000 laughter 00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:32.000 Can we just acknowledge, if they were that fast, if the investigations were that fast and if everything was that clean, if 00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:36.000 we could call somebody and I could have 17 screens up and I'm 00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:38.000 looking through and be like, "oh, they ate lunch together at the same table in 00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:43.000 the third grade, that's the bad guy," if we were able to do it that quickly, we'd fight so much more crime. 00:37:43.000 --> 00:37:51.000 So I think it's the speed of it and then what the shows, what they portray 00:37:51.000 --> 00:37:59.000 real life as like. I feel like some if it's true, but some of it is kind of a reach. 00:37:59.000 --> 00:37:62.000 Sabrina: Yeah, I would say the same thing. You watch a 00:38:02.000 --> 00:38:07.000 Special Victims Unit show and it's at best an hour long and 00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:11.000 I'm still working cases from 2020 that are still going so 00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:17.000 in reality, on a good day, I can wrap up a whole case with a pretty bow and an arrest 00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:22.000 in a month, but that's if I'm hustling really hard. 00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:27.000 Another thing I would pick apart is that detective women go out to crime 00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:32.000 scenes in their stiletto heels and their fake nails and they have 00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:35.000 beautiful long hair and they never get bloody or gross. 00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:38.000 And we go out and get really gross and dive in. 00:38:38.000 --> 00:38:44.000 Divine: For me, it's just how juveniles are depicted sometimes in the shows. 00:38:44.000 --> 00:38:56.000 Kids are awesome. And then a funny one for me, when people slap handcuffs on, you didn't double lock them. What are you doing? 00:38:56.000 --> 00:38:61.000 Jennifer: You will find as a criminal justice student that you'll never see the world the same way again. Any movie, 00:39:01.000 --> 00:39:04.000 show, anything, you'll be looking going like, "uh uh, that's not real." 00:39:04.000 --> 00:39:09.000 Sabrina: I'd say Cops is fairly real. That's the most accurate. 00:39:09.000 --> 00:39:14.000 Jennifer: Real, but then you're looking at it going like, "that was dumb, that was dumb." 00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:18.000 Eric: So real about it, this is something I learned when I went and just started in corrections and then 00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:23.000 I went out on patrol. I learned something really quick. I thought patrol was really cool until I did my first week by myself and 00:39:24.000 --> 00:39:27.000 I realized there's a whole lot more boredom going on than not. 00:39:27.000 --> 00:39:33.000 So that's something you gotta prepare yourself for on a graveyard shift where there just not might be anything happening in your 00:39:33.000 --> 00:39:38.000 community and you gotta be okay with that 00:39:33.000 --> 00:39:38.000 and make it through to the next shift into the next. 00:39:38.000 --> 00:39:42.000 Speaker: What is the most frustrating part of your job and why? 00:39:42.000 --> 00:39:44.000 Eric: Upper management and politics 00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:46.000 laughter 00:39:46.000 --> 00:39:54.000 No, the most frustrating part is, I see people wanting to do good. I work with people that are in pretrial, 00:39:54.000 --> 00:39:60.000 I arrest people, people that have been sentenced, I work with everyone in all different areas 00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:08.000 and there's people who are genuinely trying to make their lives better and just can't find a way do to it and I wish I could help them out, 00:40:08.000 --> 00:40:14.000 but I can't be everyone's big brother so it's very frustrating when I see someone that's sliding 00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:19.000 and not getting into a better spot and I know that I'm gonna be rearresting them in two weeks. 00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:28.000 Speaker: What's been one of your scariest cases you've ever done? Scariest? 00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:35.000 Sabrina: I'll take that. One of my very good friends, her and I worked together on graveyard shift. 00:40:36.000 --> 00:40:42.000 She was a bridesmaid in my wedding, we worked together for years, hearing her get shot on the radio and screaming 00:40:42.000 --> 00:40:47.000 that and I had to go help her and I kind of keep my emotions in check because I was freaking out thinking, 00:40:52.000 --> 00:40:58.000 roles and help render aid and look for the guy that shot her without 00:40:58.000 --> 00:40:63.000 letting my emotions take over because instinctively, I want to do some awful things to the person 00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:08.000 That hurt my friend, but I can't do that so I would say that was my scariest. 00:41:08.000 --> 00:41:13.000 Speaker: Were there any classes you wish you would have taken or any interesting classes that helped 00:41:13.000 --> 00:41:20.000 you that you didn't expect, whether in college or high school? 00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:25.000 Eric: My communication classes. I was originally like, "these are gonna 00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.000 be fluff, it's gonna be super easy," when they're a little bit more challenging than I thought they'd be and 00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:34.000 I use them every single day. Communication classes are huge. 00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:38.000 Sabrina: I would say I wish I would have taken Spanish. 00:41:38.000 --> 00:41:40.000 Eric: Yes 00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:46.000 Sabrina: I worked on the north end of Salem for 5 6 years and 00:41:46.000 --> 00:41:51.000 almost every caller was Spanish speaking population and 00:41:51.000 --> 00:41:55.000 I can't communicate with them so I'd have to call, phone a friend, to translate for me so 00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:61.000 if you guys can get any kind of foreign language, or even sign language, that would be very helpful. 00:42:01.000 --> 00:42:09.000 Speaker: If you were to start out as a simple every day officer, how long did it take for you to get to the job you have now? 00:42:09.000 --> 00:42:16.000 Eric: 7 years. So it took 7 years and that's jumping to a different 00:42:16.000 --> 00:42:22.000 division and going to The Academy all over again. I've been to The Academy twice. 00:42:22.000 --> 00:42:29.000 Divine: I'll say this, in this field, you will get out of it what you put in. 00:42:29.000 --> 00:42:38.000 So if you're willing to work your tail off, you're gonna get what you put into it. 00:42:38.000 --> 00:42:43.000 I'm a supervisor where I'm at. I'm like 7 years in, 00:42:43.000 --> 00:42:48.000 there's staff there that have been there longer than I have that have applied for the job, but 00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:55.000 they don't necessarily put in the same effort or work or dedication, etcetera, and I think that's a big reason why I got the job. 00:42:56.000 --> 00:42:58.000 Jennifer: Alright, so as we transition, our 00:42:58.000 --> 00:42:62.000 career panel will hang around and maybe answer a couple other questions while we get up and stretch our legs. 00:43:02.000 --> 00:43:11.000 I would like to punctuate this panel with the point that Divine made here. You continue to grow and go to school, you 00:43:12.000 --> 00:43:16.000 never kind of reach a finish line when you're in Criminal Justice. 00:43:16.000 --> 00:43:20.000 You find yourself in a position or a detail that unlocks another position or detail 00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.000 or specialized training and you just kind of continue to go along, 00:43:24.000 --> 00:43:30.000 developing, learning, and kind of gathering these assignments and growth potential under your belt. 00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.000 So to start here and get the good foundation and then build this incredibly 00:43:34.000 --> 00:43:38.000 awesome structure on top of it that's your career and your life, 00:43:38.000 --> 00:43:42.000 I think is the point that all of these career panelist are making is 00:43:42.000 --> 00:43:47.000 there's awesome stuff that you can do, there's bad points to it, but if you have a strong foundation, something 00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:52.000 Good and solid on the bottom, you can build something really amazing along the top. 00:43:52.000 --> 00:43:55.000 So panelists thank you very much for your input. 00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:61.000 applause 00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:06.000 music 00:44:06.000 --> 00:44:11.000 Jennifer: When you've been through all of your CJ classes, and you don't have do say my classes, okay, 00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:18.000 but what classes were your favorite or were really good, ones that you'd recommend. 00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:23.000 Well, I will say, Jenny's American Courts class is really cool. 00:44:23.000 --> 00:44:29.000 Having an infatuation with court system already probably makes me a little biassed, 00:44:29.000 --> 00:44:35.000 but American Courts was definitely really interesting 00:44:36.000 --> 00:44:43.000 and also I saw that Dr. Arimoto's here. 00:44:43.000 --> 00:44:47.000 She teaches Intro to Juvenile Justice. You heard her imput 00:44:48.000 --> 00:44:52.000 about that and that was probably one of my favorite classes that I took 00:44:52.000 --> 00:44:59.000 in Criminal Justice just because when you take Intro to CJ, you learn about the penal system and the generic 00:44:59.000 --> 00:44:64.000 build up of the criminal justice system, but when you get down in the nitty gritty of juvenile justice, it's so different 00:45:04.000 --> 00:45:07.000 and you realize how different kids really are and so that was probably, 00:45:08.000 --> 00:45:14.000 that's what made me wanna go into juvenile defense which is eventually the end goal. 00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:18.000 Jennifer: In my Courts class, side note, 00:45:18.000 --> 00:45:26.000 I actually take a real case, the Trayvon Martin George Zimmerman case, and we learn about court structure by watching the case. 00:45:26.000 --> 00:45:32.000 So we learn about jury selection by watching real jury selection and we learn about evidence and 00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:36.000 opening statements and all that stuff by watching a real case. 00:45:36.000 --> 00:45:41.000 We do things in criminal justice where we kind of bring in these things to make it real 00:45:41.000 --> 00:45:47.000 so that you're not just reading a textbook that says, "an opening statement is a presentation of your case." 00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:51.000 Yeah you can do that, but it's cooler to watch them. 00:45:51.000 --> 00:45:56.000 Myah: And that's one thing that I would say is by far my favorite thing about the Criminal Justice Division in general is that 00:45:56.000 --> 00:45:63.000 as far as real world experiences go, you get all of that. You get all of the 00:46:03.000 --> 00:46:09.000 In depth and you're out there and you're doing the things, but even in classes, even as Jenny has talked about, her previous law 00:46:09.000 --> 00:46:14.000 enforcement experience and she's been to law school. All of our professors have 00:46:14.000 --> 00:46:16.000 some kind of experience like that. 00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:27.000 I took criminology with Richenson? It was during COVID and a lot of things are spotty as far as 00:46:28.000 --> 00:46:36.000 classes go, but he has experience with the FBI and is working with 00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:41.000 juvenile probation and is still continuing to teach classes so it's things like that that you get 00:46:41.000 --> 00:46:47.000 their own real world experiences in class too and so you really see how it plays out and it's really cool. 00:46:47.000 --> 00:46:53.000 Jennifer: So you are in your practicum right now, working and you said you did some stuff at Mac Laren 00:46:53.000 --> 00:46:60.000 and you are taking an ungodly amount of credits every term. 00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:02.000 How did you get wrapped up? 00:47:02.000 --> 00:47:08.000 Practicum's required. You have to do that, it's part of your required classes. Everybody has to do an internship. 00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:14.000 It's part of what you do, but she's gone above and done extra stuff. So how'd you even find that or know do to it? 00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:17.000 Myah: Like as far as my practicum goes? 00:47:17.000 --> 00:47:24.000 Myah: Well, securing my practicum in the first place was a little challenging just because we were in COVID 00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:31.000 and I was convinced that I wanted to work in a law firm or with the court system or do something and a lot of things are currently 00:47:32.000 --> 00:47:36.000 remote, even the attorney that I work for now, a lot of our hearings are over Zoom which 00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:38.000 is kind of lame, but at least I'm in the office. 00:47:38.000 --> 00:47:44.000 So as far as actually getting the job, I started 00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:52.000 two terms before I even started my practicum so I created a template and it was this email and it was gonna go out to 00:47:52.000 --> 00:47:57.000 firms everywhere and I just sent it to a bunch of people and I 00:47:57.000 --> 00:47:62.000 didn't end up hearing back from the office that I work at now until a month before I even started. 00:48:02.000 --> 00:48:07.000 So it's really important to be on top of things, but also 00:48:08.000 --> 00:48:13.000 especially with criminal justice because there's so many things you have to go through as far as 00:48:13.000 --> 00:48:19.000 securing the position, like I had to sign a bunch contracts of confidentiality, I had to get a few background checks going. 00:48:19.000 --> 00:48:24.000 So these things take time and you just need to make sure you're prepared for that and that's what I did. 00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:30.000 But also, Dr. Melchore, who is the practicum coordinator, he is 00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:35.000 excellent as far as helping you find a position and if you even don't know where you wanna go, 00:48:36.000 --> 00:48:44.000 you can talk to him about those types of things too and so he was really helpful with that. But honestly, I think that I had 00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:48.000 been thinking about my practicum really far in advanced anyways just 00:48:48.000 --> 00:48:52.000 because you know that it's required of your degree and you know how many hours that you need. 00:48:52.000 --> 00:48:58.000 So even going into your freshman year, it's something to start thinking about and when you're taking your classes like, "Oh! 00:48:58.000 --> 00:48:63.000 This interests me, maybe I'll wanna work in this field for my practicum experience and see if I wanna make it a career." 00:49:04.000 --> 00:49:07.000 Jennifer: What you made you choose Criminal Justice to major in? 00:49:07.000 --> 00:49:14.000 Myah: That's a good question. Honestly, it was a toss up because I knew that I always wanted to be an attorney. 00:49:14.000 --> 00:49:24.000 So it really was narrowed down to if I wanted to really focus on criminal defense. I've always been passionate about criminal justice 00:49:24.000 --> 00:49:30.000 especially restorative justice and penal reform. So when I started 00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:35.000 volunteering with Mac Laren, I did that before I came to Western, and I started to really get involved with the juveniles. 00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.000 I think that's what really pushed me, but I also have family that 00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.000 has been in law enforcement and in the military and so that, I would say 00:49:44.000 --> 00:49:48.000 they had an influence, but yeah, I think that 00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:56.000 it was my experience at Mac Laren and just already having a passion for it and the fact that I knew I wanted to do law. 00:49:56.000 --> 00:49:62.000 Jennifer: Why did you choose Western Oregon University as opposed to all the other Criminal Justice programs that are out there? 00:50:02.000 --> 00:50:07.000 Myah: I actually chose Western for it's Criminal Justice program. So I was originally gonna go to 00:50:07.000 --> 00:50:12.000 U of O, but when I decided that criminal justice was really what I wanted to do I 00:50:12.000 --> 00:50:15.000 chose to come to Western because I had heard such good things about the program. 00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:26.000 music