The sole reason why I came to the University at Albany was because of the prestige of the criminal
justice program
-The school of criminal justice at the
University at Albany is continually
one of the top ranked programs in the
nation.
-The field of criminology and
criminal justice
is really wide open.
-I found a job immediately after graduating
-The students who study criminal justice have the opportunity to really have an impact on our
society
-The magnitude of opportunity is really
what drew me into this program. I knew I wanted to help people. I knew I was very interested in law.
-The criminal justice major really encompasses the legal aspect, the law enforcement
aspect of it, advocacy.
-The prospects for rewarding
careers
are unlimited. There's just been an
explosion of interest in the areas of
crime and criminal justice
things like cybercrime human trafficking
terrorism.
-So we really
encourage our students to become proficient in those areas because there's a need in the field for that.
There are various positions of course in
probation parole, DCGS
analyst positions.
-I'm a research assistant
here at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
Most of my work involves collecting data, working
with heroin addicts, opiate addicts in
general.
I use the skills that I got from obtaining the degree, so that puts me in a unique
position in terms of helping out people with that kind of history.
-So what was the strategy?
How did they approach this?
-At UAlbany we studied criminal
justice, criminology as well as law.
-One of the
things that
Albany taught me was really to respect the ideas and to be excited about the
intellectual work that you were doing.
-So what is it that cease-fires try to
accomplish?
Our courses are designed to challenge
students intellectually
to get them to really think about the
theoretical and empirical
issues.
-We expect students with high
academic rigor
that can come in, be critical, be able to
look at situations
analyze what's going on.
-Myself I think I took 4 or 5 writing intensive courses.
-And so this really does bring a level of
rigor to our program that might not be
found
in some other programs.
-Your role in this assignment is to...
-We have a restricted major so the
classes are smaller which allows a
lot more faculty-student interaction.
-I had a class with nine students and I
really couldn't think of a big college
that offers a personal
level that's SUNY Albany does. 
-Being in the capital
our students get a bit of an advantage.
-Last year I interned for the New York State
Senate
which led into a job, now another internship for the budget.
-We have Senate and Assembly internships available we have practical internships
with local police departments
we also have internships with
community-based organizations.
-This summer
I did a great human rights advocacy
program and I interned with several
groups that dealt with juvenile justice. I got
to meet students from Rwanda, Bosnia.
It was crazy and I really opened up a whole new world to me.
-Having a criminal justice degree definitely allows me to see the broader picture.
-I had good training, a good grounding in
terms of what criminology and criminal
justice was all about.
- I have a lot to thank the school for
the school was there for me to make my
dreams possible.
