Women As Police Officers

By: Samantha Martinez

I developed a passion in criminal justice in high school. My sister was a criminal justice major and I would look in her books I found a lot that was interesting for me to read. Growing up in Detroit, Michigan I witnessed a lot of people get arrested when I was younger.  Cops sirens were a daily noise in my neighborhood. What attracted me to become a cop was the way the cops carry themselves and the authority they hold.

My first semester of college I took criminal justice 101 and I loved it. Being a police officer can also lead me to other criminal justice careers, like becoming a detective or joining the S.W.A.T team. I have told people my interest in becoming a cop and their response is, " Really you don't seem like the type to be one." When what they want to say is "really but you're a girl". Seeing women police officers also gives me boost of confidence because the perception of a cop is usually male.

 A lot of people say police officers do not get paid a lot nor a successful career because of the danger it comes with. The danger it comes with to help other people in danger is what excites me, helping others is an important part of who I am as a person. Negative stereotypes will exist, but those will never take away the degree of hard work you put into becoming who you want to be. Women police officers are only growing and I will be one of them.

Stereotypes of music

By Braden Hanks

cafepress

Unfortunately, with almost every profession out there, there are stigmas and stereotypes surrounding that career.  For music, it's one you can find not only in popular culture, but everyday life as well.  

When I think about stereotypes surrounding someone in a music class, I think one stigma that surrounds a music student is that they're a "band geek", or that all they "do" is music.  While I would consider myself a nerd on the subject, that doesn't mean that I'm not a diverse person.  In high school, on top of marching band, I also played on the varsity tennis team (went to states too) and the varsity hockey team.  If that's not diverse, then I don't know what is.

Another assumption that people make about music educators is that since the majority of K12 educators are women, people tell me that this career "isn't for me" or "doesn't fit who you are".  I think this is crap.  It's what I love.  It's what I want to do with my life.  Nothing should stop me from pursuing my passion.  That said, I think it's important to note that you should never let some stigma dictate your choices in life, both in career choice and everyday obstacles.

How to start off in Music

By Braden Hanks

For the source, click here

One question I'm asked quite a bit is "how did you get started in music education?"  While it took lots of hard work, a lot of it was just being forced into it by my parents and having a love for music grow through that pain.  To begin, I took drum lessons from ages 6-10 just for fun, because my dad plays drums as well.  While I didn't enjoy these very much, he thought I did, and kept me in them.  I eventually stopped due to financial reasons, and entered band in fifth grade.  Playing trumpet then, like almost everyone else, I just went to band every day all through middle school and didn't think anything of it.

It was in 8th grade that everything changed.  My future high school band director, David Larzelere, visited the middle school to recruit middle schoolers to be in the marching band.  He then came up to me and asked, "you wanna play Euphonium (see image above) in marching band?".  Naturally I just said sure, not thinking anything of it.  Little did I know that this would be the difference maker in my musical career.  Through high school, with each day, I grew a larger love for music, becoming first chair my sophomore year, and section leader my junior year.  My senior year, with no other career field in mind, I decided to audition for the MSU college of music, and I got in, getting me to where I am today.  So it was all because of my parents and my high school band director.  A little hard work didn't hurt either.

Prompt One: Asking Questions and Breaking Assumptions.

By: Cassy Rymas
Prompt #1


Going into the field of law there are many assumptions of the what is done and the personalities of the people who you see in uniform. I will be talking about criminal justice, more specifically law enforcement. Many people assume police officers, lawyers, and judges are “out to get them” or corrupt. This is due to television shows and movies. There’s always a bad cop, good cop type of roll.

source: The Town Crier

The media now, more than ever has a huge say on how one will view a police officer. Assumptions that are made, are that the individuals are racist, and want to put blacks away. However, this is false. while I'm sure there are some cops who are racist, not every cop is, and a cop can't actually lock someone up.

In my intro to criminal justice class, we learned about how there are many ways to enter and exit the criminal justice system. That means, if you make it all the way to trial, there’s most likely some good evidence against you. We also went over the main job of a prosecutor (this is what I am going to be), this girl behind me said: “the only thing a prosecutor wants to do is get em’ locked up.” I can personally say this is false, that’s not the goal I have, I intend to get the criminals off the street to make it safer for others. I also, want to get those criminals help, just because you broke the law doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. It means you’re headed down a bad path and just need some guidance. A prosecutor can decide what they want to ask for in sentencing, which means every prosecutor is going to ask for something different. Not every prosecutor is going to have the same end game of locking someone up.

 Another assumption that has no validity is that a girl crying to a cop has a better chance of getting let go.  When an insurance company did the research the findings showed that men are more likely to get out of a ticket than females. I personally have seen this, I know several males who have gotten multiple tickets and have gotten out of all of them, and then there’s me. I got one speeding ticket and didn’t even have a chance of getting out of it.

      Resouces : criminal justice book

                         esurance