For Sophomores and Juniors looking to go to the Careerline Tech Center try out Public Safety. A Junior in the program, Jennah Bolkema, from Jenison High School states “It’s probably one of my favorite parts of the day. I like coming here because I have my friends here and I have really great teachers. And I know I’m going to learn something really new and interesting, and something really cool.” The teachers have over 50 years of police work combined. They always find opportunities for students to help pursue their dream

Introduction

The class will help better your knowledge of police work or any criminal justice system job. Taking it will help decide if this is the field you want to go into. Also, it helps build a mindset and make better connections with people in the class to become a big family.

Being in the class means becoming a family and helping each other through everything in life in and out of school. Helping with making better choices throughout your life and through school.

There are other types of work the class covers instead of only police work. The criminal justice system gets broken down into 3 parts; Law enforcement, corrections, courts. There are jobs within those parts.

Bolkema proceeds to talk about different units in the class, “I like forensics a lot. And they cover forensics in this class along with other aspects of public safety. So, I decided to take this class to see if there’s anything else in this field that I would like to do.”

More than a Class

A Junior at West Ottawa High School, Anjanique Kladder-Garlock explains how they give life lessons, “The class is built upon, your values and morals and that’s something that we really look at because those will influence your actions and behavior.”

Lessons taught at the beginning of the school year are still used now. These lessons will stick throughout life. The teachers help as much as possible in achieving goals with students.

Expectations

Allyson Holley a Senior at Allendale High School, tells us her thoughts going into the class, “I just expected to learn different things that could help me in law enforcement, but I didn’t realize that we would go in-depth about things, but I just kind of expected to get a little brief summary of everything.”

Accomplishments from the teachers’ past careers fill the room. The class often sits and listens to all the stories from life before teaching.

Jennah goes further into detail about why she enjoys the class, “I love how it’s hands-on and how we get to not only talk about what police do but we get to try out and do the stuff that they do. And look at how hard their job is and I like that. Our teachers are really good teachers because they were actually police officers so they know what they’re doing and they’ve had experience and stories to back up what they teach us.”

Next Step

Knowing criminal justice helps understand the system and why they do things. This class will only make you better whether it’s learning more or going into that career. These experiences and opportunities are ones you won’t get anywhere else.

Signing up for this class is super easy and simple. If you want to learn more about the class don’t be afraid to reach out and ask questions. Stopping in the class to learn more about it if you are already taking tech is a great option too. The teachers are more than willing to give you more information and the students in the class will help out. Consider joining a family that will stick with you for life.