Criminal Justice Students Win Big at Regional, National Conferences
Criminal justice students at DeSales University took home high honors at two recent conferences.
Master of Arts in Criminal Justice (MCJ) student Kristan "Taylor" Gaspari received a $500 scholarship award at the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Justice Educators' (PACJE) annual academic conference at Lock Haven University.
Gaspari won the Bernie Meyer Graduate Scholarship Award for her research paper on domestic violence.
Five DeSales students also attended the American Criminal Justice Association's (ACJA) national conference in Cleveland, Ohio, along with Dr. Michelle Bolger, assistant professor, and Joseph Walsh, acting director of the MCJ program.
"We were probably the second smallest chapter there," says Bolger. "But everybody knew us because we won some pretty cool awards. It's just another testament to our students and their character."
The group took part in a number of competitions, including academics, crime scene, physical agility, shooting, and a talent show.
"The thing that we got the most notoriety for was the talent show," says Bolger. "We didn't realize how intense it was."
Bolger, who is from Cleveland, gathered up a bunch of Cavaliers shirts and jerseys and taught the group a regional line dance called the Cleveland shuffle. The group, which also included Walsh, Laura Sickels '19, Alex Vreeland '19, Ryan Musselman '19, Julia Marlin '19, and Joe Beasley '19, came in first place.
In addition to the talent show:
- Musselman came in second place in the criminal law exam (upper level) and received an honorable mention in the crime scene competition (upper level)
- Vreeland came in third in the criminal law exam (upper level) and received an honorable mention in the crime scene competition (upper level)
- Sickels received an honorable mention in the crime scene competition (upper level)
- Bolger took first place in the juvenile justice exam (professional level), third place in the corrections exam (professional level), and first place in the crime scene competition (professional level)
- Walsh, president of Region IV, won the Region IV award.
