Waynesburg University is consistently ranked as a great school for education and value in the region. One of those reasons is the quality of classes and the opportunity to have on-the-job learning experiences while in school.
Sydney Flick, a senior criminal justice and sociology major and psychology minor, has been the lone student worker with the Department of Public Safety since the August of 2015, and in doing so has been able to learn about how campus security works.
“You get to kind of see about the inner workings of the school,” said Flick. “On the surface, you don’t know what’s going on, but when you’re in there, you get to see a lot of it and help with it as well.”
Flick works closely with Waynesburg’s campus security officers throughout the week. While they will take rounds around campus and patrol campus with the officers, Flick stays in the office to make sure someone is there to take care of other work that needs to get done.
Although not always the most glorified part of the job that most may watch on television cop shows, Flick is important to ensuring the department runs smoothly.
“I’ll watch the cameras, I’ll answer the phones,” said Flick. “I’ll take statements if someone comes in and they need to write a statement, or I’ll proofread some of the reports that have been written up.”
Mike Humiston, Director of the Department of Public Safety, is appreciative of the work Flick and past student workers that have held her position have done in the past to assist the department through their hands-on learning.
“I think they get a lot out of what we ask them to do here in preparation for them when they actually graduate from here and get a job in criminal justice,” said Humiston. “Things like how to write a report and what’s important to be in a report.”
With at least the past three students that have worked with the department having gotten jobs in law enforcement, Humiston sees no problem for Flick landing a job in her career path upon graduation.
“Flick does a great job and she’s in line to be possibly one of the valedictorians for the graduating class,” said Humiston. “She’s a criminal justice major and one of the ones that takes it seriously. To have the possibility of being the valedictorian means a lot to her.”
Flick is actually already working as a security office with a separate company, doing background checks online for Gittings Private Investigations in Evansburg, Pennsylvania.
However, upon graduating, Flick would like to work somewhere in law enforcement on actual ground.
“I would like to go into some form of law enforcement, whether that be police work or in to the corrections system somewhere,” said Flick.
Overall, the criminal justice program at Waynesburg has prepared Flick and other students for promising careers in the law enforcement path.
“I think we have one of the best, if not the best, criminal justice majors in southwestern Pennsylvania,” said Humiston. “Waynesburg University is very highly sought after from a law enforcement standpoint with different agencies.”