After spending four years in college learning the ropes of the criminal justice field, many criminal justice graduates may be overwhelmed at the prospect of entering the workforce – sending out resumes, going to interviews and trying their hardest to impress prospective employers. Surely, this is a rough transition – but at Missouri State University (MSU), these majors are getting a chance to help students smoothen that transition.

MSU has launched a new part of its criminal justice program – a senior seminar geared at helping students prepare themselves for the workplace. While many universities offer criminal justice programs that focus on classroom work, MSU pays special attention to the maturing and development of each student to make the transition from class to work that much easier.

“We have seen a tremendous student response to this program,” says Fran Reddington, a Criminal Justice professor. “Essentially, we started this program with the hope that we could gear students towards professionalism in the workplace.”

Positive Attitudes and Prospective Employers

Professors at MSU have made many changes to the traditional senior seminar class in an attempt to fill the gap between classroom knowledge and hands-on experience. According to Andy Crowther, a senior seminar instructor at MSU, the seminar class helps students with their resumes, interview skills, and public speaking skills.

“When students go through this senior seminar, they have to participate in mock job interviews – they get a chance to see what types of questions will be asked in a real interview, and how to answer those questions,” Crowther says.

While criminal justice students are earning their degrees at MSU, they are also required to create a job packet – complete with resume, cover letter and references – and apply to three prospective employers. According to Reddington and Crowther, this part of the program helps students develop a positive attitude and teaches them what employers are looking for – and what they can expect when they are employed.

“I really think we just realized that we needed to link criminal justice students up with the job world,” Reddington says. “We listened to students that graduated, and they told us what they had encountered, and what they think would have helped them on their job search.”

Statistically, the program seems to be helping students. In a recent survey of criminal justice graduates, MSU found that 91.2% of the graduates felt very satisfied with the quality of instruction they had received. In another survey after the 2002-2003 school year, 74% of the graduates reported that they had a job within six months of completing the program.

Preparing Leaders in Criminal Justice

Crowther says the statistics aren't the only important part of the program.

“We are giving students a chance to pull things together before they enter the workforce,” Crowther says. “And this class is much more informal than most because it is based on hands-on experience. We are bringing all areas of the criminal justice field together, and helping to round our students out.”

Most of the senior seminar classes at MSU have 15 to 30 students, so each student has the opportunity to spend more one-on-one time with professors. Reddington also notes that one of the main objectives of the program is to prepare students to become leaders in the criminal justice field.

“More sections of this program are opening every year, and I'm very happy to see that students are taking advantage of this opportunity,” Reddington says. “We are combining independent work and contact with professors. Students have a chance to learn in different ways and it's really been quite effective.”

Both Reddington and Crowther added that the program helps students to understand the policies that they have to follow while on the job.

“Students really appreciate the chance to prepare themselves for the real world,” Reddington says. “We are helping them get ready for on-the-job training, and settling their nerves before they leave college.”

MSU notes that many of their graduates have gone on to make up a large part of the criminal justice field, from police and corrections officers to judges, attorneys and professors. MSU has even established a Criminal Justice Day, which gives prospective students a closer look into the program, and get to talk to graduates of the program.

For Reddington, the criminal justice program really makes a difference when she sees students move seamlessly from the classroom to the workplace.

“When we see students sending out resumes and applications to prospective employers, and sometimes being hired right out of college, it proves that this seminar is helping,” Reddington says. “We couldn't be happier at the response we are seeing – especially when we are preparing these students to become leaders in the criminal justice field.”