March 20, 2018, New York, NY– Researchers at John Jay College of Criminal Justice are creating a first of its kind national, open-source database to track shootings on K-12 school grounds and sharpen the public’s understanding of these tragedies. In partnership with University of Texas at Dallas and Michigan State University, the project is supported by a grant from the National Institute of Justice’s Comprehensive School Safety Initiative – a research-focused initiative that seeks to develop knowledge about the root causes of school violence and to foster and evaluate strategies for increasing school safety.

“At this crucial time in our national discussion on school violence, John Jay College is proud to be at the forefront of academic research that will support local, state and national efforts to tackle this problem with evidence-based policies and interventions,” said Karol V. Mason, President of John Jay College of Criminal Justice.“

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The dearth of empirical data on school violence in the United States and the almost complete absence of quantitative data on perpetrators and incidents will be remedied by the production of this database and the analysis of data on the risk factors of school shootings,” said Professor Joshua Freilich, who is the principal investigator of the project and a member of the Department of Criminal Justice at John Jay College.

Research on the individual, institutional, and community factors related to school violence has been hindered by lack of reliable data. The goal of this project is to address this gap and to inform potential policy responses tailored for individuals and communities. The database will include data about all publicly known school shootings that resulted in at least one injury from 1990 to December 31^st, 2016 and will be completed and made public in the spring of 2019. Three major objectives of the project are to:

• document the nature of the problem and clarify the types of shooting incidents occurring in schools;
• provide a comprehensive understanding of the perpetrators of school shootings and test causal factors to assess if mass and non-mass shootings are comparable; and
• compare fatal shooting incidents to events where only nonfatal injuries resulted to identify intervention points that could be used to reduce the harm caused by shootings.

In addition to fatal shooting attacks that targeted students or teachers, the database will include cases that resulted in injuries but no deaths; domestic violence, work place violence, or any other shootings occurring on school grounds; and suicides on school grounds involving a firearm. 

Researchers will use quantitative, multivariate analyses and qualitative case studies to document where and when school violence occurs. They will highlight key incident and perpetrator characteristics to help law enforcement and school administrators differentiate between the kinds of school shootings that exist to aid in the development of prevention strategies and policy initiatives at local and federal levels.

Several graduate students from the John Jay master’s and doctoral programs in criminal justice are part to the College’s research team. Future research plans include expanding the study to attacks on college campuses and also examining foiled plots – planned shooting attacks that were thwarted by the law enforcement and others.

About John Jay College of Criminal Justice: An international leader in educating for justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice of The City University of New York offers a rich liberal arts and professional studies curriculum to upwards of 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 135 nations. John Jay is home to faculty and research centers at the forefront of researching and advancing criminal and social justice reform. In teaching, scholarship and research, the College engages the theme of justice and explores fundamental human desires for fairness, equality and the rule of law. For more information, visit www.jjay.cuny.edu.

Students fascinated by infamous crimes are likely to enjoy Simon Baatz’s history classes. Baatz has been a professor at John Jay since 2006, where he teaches U.S. history from 1865 to the present, as well as crime and punishment in America. He’s the author of several bestselling books on true crime cases, and this year, he published The Girl on the Velvet Swing (Little, Brown Co.), an engrossing account of the life of Evelyn Nesbit, whose tragic story sheds light on the legal, political, and cultural landscape of early 20th century New York.

In 1906, the young Evelyn Nesbit found herself entangled in the criminal justice system after her husband, Harry Thaw, murdered one of the most powerful men in New York, the renowned architect Stanford White. Nesbit’s testimony, in which she claimed that White had raped her as a teenager several years before Thaw fatally shot him, helped make the murder one of the most sensationalized crime cases at the turn of the century. 

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

For years, the murder was written about in major newspapers in New York and around the country, as one shocking development followed the next. But despite the abundance of documentation, Baatz knew that telling the story would require meticulous research. Most of the information he needed would be found on rolls of microfilm that contained scaled-down reproductions of the news articles that covered the years before and after the murder and its subsequent series of trials.

“It was the golden age of American newspapers from 1890 to 1929,” Baatz explains, “and there were at least 14 newspapers just in New York that were competing for readership, many of which have now gone out of business.” For years, Baatz sifted through endless pages from those and other publications in order to piece together an unbelievably detailed portrait of Nesbit’s life—one that even included quotations from private conversations. “People might think, how on earth did you know such and such was said,” says Baatz. “But it’s there printed in the newspapers.”

The case of Stanford White’s murder illuminates the way in which the criminal justice system operates in conjunction with a number of political and social institutions, and is influenced not only by cultural norms, but also by power and wealth. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, Nesbit’s testimony, which led to her simultaneous stardom and disrepute, might serve as an illustrative example of the challenges faced by women who make allegations of sexual assault against influential men. 

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

In February, Baatz was invited to speak at the University of Oxford and Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV on the ubiquity of sexual deviance and rape in New York during the Gilded Age. Despite his profound knowledge of the subject, Baatz says that his role as a historian is to omit his own analysis and present information as objectively as possible. “The truth is a question mark,” he says. “Who am I to say what really happened, or to tell you what to believe? I want people to make up their own minds.”

Alumna Dr. Kathleen carterMartinez is a testament to the interdisciplinary power of a John Jay education. In the early ‘80s, she was working as a radiology technician at a hospital, and had an associate’s degree in law enforcement. She was looking to enroll in a program where she could satisfy her interest in healthcare as well as in criminal justice, but her search was getting her nowhere. “I was consistently told that the kind of program I wanted didn’t exist,” she says. “And I believed that until I found John Jay.”

As an older professional working full-time, carterMartinez wasn’t the typical undergraduate student, but that didn’t prevent her from becoming completely immersed in her John Jay classes in forensic psychology. When she graduated in 1985, she continued her education in clinical psychology at Fairleigh Dickinson and did her practicum in a hospital emergency room as part of a crisis intervention team. carterMartinez, who knew that law enforcement officers often did the work of first responders, was excited to apply what she had learned at John Jay in the hospital setting.

“At John Jay, there was a recognition that certain issues like addiction or mental health couldn’t be understood unless we made connections between psychology and law enforcement,” she said. “When I was working in psychiatric emergency services, I made those connections, and I became the forensic specialist for crisis calls from local prisons and jails.”

carterMartinez went on to receive her doctorate from Nova Southeastern University and has continued to work with different communities that struggle with mental illness and trauma. One of the positions she is most proud of holding was on the Passamaquoddy Native American reservation in Maine, where she became the Director of Mental Health and Substance Abuse. As director, she worked with law enforcement and emergency services agencies in order to create holistic responses to mental health issues.

Now, carterMartinez works at the CheyWind Center for Trauma and Healing, and she has synthesized all that she’s learned in a new book titled Permission Granted: The Journey from Trauma to Healing. carterMartinez, who is also a certified rape crisis and sexual assault counselor and has taught classes at SUNY Plattsburgh in the Gender and Women’s Studies and Psychology departments, hopes that the book can serve as a resource for clinicians to better understand the experience of trauma following sexual assault. She also proposes new ways for the legal system to interact with survivors of traumatic events. “We expect that if someone hurt you, you will want to put them in jail. But the reality is that’s not a choice for everyone,” she said. “We need to respect those individual choices.”

carterMartinez is delighted to see that John Jay continues to be a leader in justice, and especially in forensic psychology. She reflects on her John Jay experience fondly, and even remembers waiting in line for the payphone in Haaren Hall. “Whenever I got an ‘A’ I would call my parents,” she said. “John Jay helped me go in the direction I wanted to go in. I was always excited about my work.”

Robert Ryan grew up in a family of law enforcement and when he graduated from Loyola University Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in biology and psychology, he knew he wanted to tie his clinical background to national security. In September of 2017, he enrolled in John Jay’s graduate program in Criminal Justice and now plans to graduate in December.

“John Jay has a reputation in the law enforcement world,” Ryan said. “There’s an emerging field of applying psychological insight to criminal investigation, and the best place to do that is here.”

Before starting the program, Ryan kept busy working as a volunteer firefighter and full-time EMT, and later became an intern at the U.S. Marshals Service NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force. Once he started taking classes, he began working at the Research and Evaluation Center (JohnJayREC) as a Graduate Research Fellow, an opportunity available to academically strong graduate students who want to deepen their applied research skills. With support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, he worked closely with director Jeffrey Butts to evaluate community-based programs. “It's a wonderful office that is doing really meaningful research,” Ryan said.

From there, Ryan has continued to find opportunities to develop his career. In November, he was offered a prestigious position at the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General as part of a student cooperative program offered to John Jay graduate students. This paid position is distinct from an internship in that it demands a similar level of work as a criminal investigator. Since starting, Ryan has gained real-world investigative experience.

“As soon as I saw the opportunity at the Inspector General, I jumped all over it,” he said. “I’m getting an inside look at what's going on in the office. I’m learning how to produce reports and conduct investigations.”

That firsthand experience is being supplemented by an unparalleled opportunity to study with leaders in the field. Ryan says that what distinguishes John Jay’s program from other colleges is not only the faculty’s past experience as analysts and agents, but their continued engagement with justice issues. “John Jay professors haven’t sat in an ivory tower since getting their doctorate. They’re actually out there in the field and they know the applied side of the material they teach. That translates to the classroom,” he said.

Learning from faculty and staff who continue to contribute to the world of national security is important for Ryan, who is getting advanced certificates in Criminal Investigation and Terrorism Studies in addition to his master’s degree, and who plans to later pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at John Jay.

“At John Jay, I can see what these people have done to get to where they are in their careers, and how the results of their work impact national security,” Ryan said. “I’d like to be in the field one day too as an investigator, but also as a researcher. It’s that aspect of giving back—of having a fruitful career and contributing to the scientific community later—that inspires me.”

This spring, John Jay College proudly announced the 2018-2019 HSI speaker series. The series, which celebrates and promotes the College’s federal designation as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), is part of an ongoing conversation about how the College can develop policies and best practices to help Hispanic students succeed.

The College has been an HSI since the 1980s, and in recent years, the number of Hispanic students on campus has grown to nearly half the student body at 47%. Ensuring that these students have the programs and services they need to graduate is among the College’s top priorities. In a formal letter addressed to the John Jay community, President Karol V. Mason emphasized this commitment.

“I am tremendously proud that John Jay became a federal HSI as a direct result of Hispanic students expressly choosing to be a part of the John Jay community,” she said. “In my eyes, promoting and celebrating our HSI status is a vital key for the success of all our students. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, but a key first step in these efforts is to engage in a community conversation about what our HSI status means.”

Watch President Mason talk about the importance of diversity at John Jay.

Mason also thanked a core group of faculty, staff, and students that have been dedicated to deepening John Jay’s HSI status. In 2017, faculty members from the Latin American and Latina/o Studies Department wrote a comprehensive position paper to identify the challenges that Hispanic students face, as well as recommendations on how the College community can address them. Professor José Luis Morín, who coauthored the paper, said that focusing on improving the graduation and retention rates of Hispanic students would have a positive effect on all John Jay students. “By implementing the best practices outlined in the position paper, we would also benefit students facing similar challenges that many Latinx students encounter, including many low-income and first-generation college students,” he said.

The speaker series is only one part of the effort to embrace and expand upon John Jay’s HSI designation beyond enrollment numbers alone. There are six events scheduled in the series this spring, and more will be announced in the fall. The events are open to the public, and all John Jay community members are invited to attend.

In January, the series opened with David Rice, Associate Provost for Integrative Learning and Academic Accountability at Morehouse University, who attested to the importance of making visible the contributions of people of color in order to heighten their sense of belonging on campus. “The idea of visibility is about how attached to the community students are, and how valued they feel within it,” he said. “How can we create the type of social space where everyone is of value?”

Gina A. Garcia, Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and the second speaker in the series, delivered a powerful lecture on how institutions can create equitable learning environments by implementing anti-racist policies. “The mission is to disrupt systems of oppression,” she said.

Among the topics explored in the series are the intersections of personality and pop culture, the effect of government policies on college access and completion rates, culture and practices toward identity development, and harnessing social capital and ethnic resources.

To see the remaining lectures this spring, visit the HSI speaker series calendar.

On March 15, over 900 John Jay students took full advantage of the Career & Internship Fair produced by the Center for Career & Professional Development. “Each semester, the Career Center works hard to bring in a diverse group of employers to help students think about future career opportunities,” says the Career Center’s Senior Director, Will Simpkins. “It is clear that local and national employers place John Jay College at the top of their list of recruitment sites, and they routinely tell us that our students are the most prepared, most curious, and most driven.” Walking through the event, it was impossible not to notice the infectious enthusiasm the students had with the 101 employers in attendance. Here’s a sampling of thoughts, interactions and aspirations found at this year’s Career & Internship Fair:

U. Renee Hall, Chief of Police, Dallas Police Department 
 "It's a blessing being the first woman Chief of Police in the Dallas Police Department. And, it’s been amazing at this career fair because I've talked to so many young ladies who are excited about joining the police. At first they didn't think being the Chief was possible for them, but now they know that they can reach for that goal. If I could use one word to describe this fair at John Jay, that word would be ‘phenomenal.’ John Jay is committed to ensuring that all their students have access to every facet of law enforcement.”

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Rawsan Jackson, junior at John Jay 
"This was my first time meeting the Dallas Chief of Police, and all the information she provided me was really great and helpful. I'm actually thinking about going to Dallas. Once I graduate from John Jay, I'm willing to go wherever the money is good, the cost of living is good, and I can start a new life." 

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Emily Tarrats, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, John Jay '93
"I'm an alumna from John Jay, and it's nice to be back because I was in these students’ footsteps a while ago. I had just earned my degree, and I came to the career fair looking for a job. There were a bunch of law enforcement agencies, and I was intimidated by them because I wasn’t the law enforcement type. But I liked the work that the postal inspectors did, and I was impressed with them when they spoke to me. It was the only organization I applied to, and here I am 17 years later. This is where it happened for me, so I’d like to do the same for these students.”

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Quanishia Mosely, Recruiter with the Metropolitan Museum of Art 
“We are an iconic institution within the New York area, and we have a large security force within the museum. We’re looking for people in the metropolitan area who are committed to public service, want to be part of a non-profit, and enjoy security. The students here are super professional and really enthusiastic about law and criminal justice. I’m pretty sure we’ll be hiring some John Jay students, we’ve got a good amount of resumes, and they’re quality candidates.”

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Jess Bishenkevich, Recruiter with the United States Tennis Association (USTA)
"We come here to hire people for our access-control positions—which is security and credentialing, making sure people have the right credentials to be in appropriate areas. A lot of John Jay students are great candidates. They know what they're looking for, everyone's prepared with a resume. They know what questions to ask." 

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Shannese Atkinson, senior at John Jay 
"Last year the career fair helped me get a bunch of interviews. So I'm hoping to get a job this time. I'm looking for a job in counseling."

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Charles Vaughn, Officer with the Dallas police department
“John Jay students are prepared because their instructors actually spearhead them in the direction for success. They don’t sugarcoat anything. John Jay students understand that they have to put the work in, and they’re really mindful about where they want to go and the process that they have to go through to get there. The students can only be as good as the instructors, and John Jay's instructors are fantastic at preparing their students for success.” 

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Dannerys Fuccillo, Human Resources Generalist 1-800-Flowers 
"Our founder, Jim McCann, graduated from John Jay, so that's one of the main reasons why we always want to be here. Also, there's a lot of great students asking insightful questions and inquiring about internships. Right now, we're mostly recruiting for summer internships in all of our departments, including marketing, finance, IT, human resources and merchandising. But we also have full-time roles, primarily entry-level in IT and marketing."

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

John Mitchell, Officer with the Baltimore County Police Department, Baltimore County, Maryland
"We come here twice a year, and this is our eighth time. John Jay students are hard working, dedicated and well educated. They've been very beneficial to our agency. If you're a John Jay student looking to join the Baltimore County police department, I suggest that you keep a clean record, and realize that everything you learn here benefits you when you enter law enforcement. It’s also important to know that we take all different educational backgrounds, it's not just one particular college major that we’re fixed on. Diversity is very important to us, we're focused on getting a reflection of our communities, which entails all genders, races, and religious backgrounds. Everybody's welcome."

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Sergeant First Class Mariecha Rowe-Watson, New York Army National Guard, John Jay '03 
 "I was a freshman right here at John Jay College and I met a recruiter at the job fair. He introduced me to the benefits of the Guard, and here I am 18 years later. The students are talking to me about what their goals are in the future. I liked that a lot of them were dressed for success today. And, they were walking up to every table and talking to people."

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Studying the brain might not be what comes to mind when you think of cyber security, but Jennifer Holst did just that for her graduate level thesis. As part of her Digital Forensics and Cyber Security master’s program, she looked at raw EEG data to take what we know about the characteristics of internet traffic and apply it to the human mind. Holst graduates this year with her M.S., but because of her academic success, she’s already teaching as an adjunct professor in the Mathematics and Computer Science Department.

Bridging the gap between understanding computers and understanding the mind reflects Holst’s previous background in psychology and tech. Before coming to John Jay, she graduated with a B.S. in Psychology and went on to work in online forum moderation and visual merchandising. She learned about tech from the programmers she worked with, but other than that, her knowledge of computer science was limited.

But that didn’t stop her from pursuing her dream of learning about cyber security. In order to get up to speed for the master’s program, she took several undergraduate John Jay courses, even surpassing the number of credits needed to enroll. “I took more classes than I had to because I wanted to get a better handle of the field,” she says. “I basically had enough credits to claim it as an undergraduate major.”

Holst says there’s a shortage of people who are highly skilled in digital forensics and cyber security, and she sees great potential for her career. As platforms like Facebook are being scrutinized for what seem to be grave violations of privacy, the field of cyber security seems to be growing more rapidly than ever before. Holst is particularly intrigued by how criminal justice interacts with data security. “Companies have teams that will conduct investigations into data breaches,” she says. “Figuring out what to do once a breach has happened and doing those investigations is something I’d want to do.”

During her time at John Jay, Holst was able to work closely as a research assistant with Dr. Aftab Ahmad, Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. She wrote program files that other students were tasked with “reverse engineering” in labs, meaning they figured out exactly how Holst had written them. Holst also tutored at the Computer Science and Statistics Data Center, which helped prepare her to teach. This spring, Holst is teaching an Introduction to Programming class as well as a class in the certificate program CSIBridge, a program that is ideal for working professionals looking to learn more about computer science.

As an adjunct professor, Holst is thrilled to share her passion with other John Jay students so they can one day become leaders in the field. “Much of our lives are lived online,” she says. “We are always connected, but there’s a trade-off there between convenience and security. It’s exciting to have the opportunity to make a safer cyber environment.”

Deborah Koetzle, Ph.D., Associate Professor and the Executive Officer of the Doctoral Program in Criminal Justice, was in El Salvador working to help improve severe prison overcrowding, when she received an unexpected email from City & State New York, a media organization dedicated to covering local politics and policy. The email said that she would be one of their 30 Above & Beyond Award Honorees, recognizing extraordinary women in education, health, labor, law/lobbying, government and real estate. “I was shocked,” says Koetzle. “There are so many people here at John Jay, and elsewhere, doing such amazing work. And when you’re in the weeds, I think we sometimes forget that what we’re doing actually makes a difference. It was a huge validation that the work I’m doing really matters.”

Koetzle believes her biggest educational contributions center around her research on correctional rehabilitation and reducing recidivism. “A lot of my work focuses on identifying programs that are effective, and transferring that research to different agencies and practitioners, such as probation officers, correctional officers or drug counselors,” says Koetzle. Her research has added to a whole body of literature on recidivism, dating back to the 1980s. And some of her findings have been both eye opening and transformative for criminal justice practitioners.

“It seems counter intuitive, but we’ve found that spending your energies on high-risk offenders is actually more effective than spending your energies on low-risk offenders,” says Koetzle. Her research shows that low-risk offenders have strong family ties, jobs and schooling that could be negatively impacted with intensive treatment. Whereas high-risk offenders, who often don’t have strong support networks, could truly benefit from decision-making and impulse-control training. “If someone is more likely to reoffend, they probably don’t have as many positive role models in their life, and there could be some deficits,” says Koetzle. “Treatment teaches them how to engage with others, celebrate without getting high, manage without drugs and alcohol, and identify positive friends and relationships. By building up these strengths, you can significantly prevent reoffending.” 

In recognition of Koetzle’s work with her Ph.D. students and research fighting recidivism, on March 28, 2018, she was honored at City & State New York’s 30 Most Remarkable Women gala at the Dream Hotel. “Looking at the list of people being honored, I was awed to be a part of the event,” says Koetzle. “And also, as a woman, I hope to serve as a role model for students, showing them that women can do a lot. We all know this, but I think it’s important to see women in leadership positions, being active across a variety of settings.”   

New York, NY, April 11, 2018– John Jay College of Criminal Justice today announced that honorary degrees will be presented to Rashida Manjoo, Professor of Public Law at University of Cape Town, South Africa and former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, and Ronald V. Clarke, University Professor at the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice  and theoretical innovator of situational crime prevention.

These internationally recognized scholars will address the Class of 2018 at the College’s 53^rd Commencement exercises on Wednesday, May 30 at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing, N.Y.

“Our 2018 honorees have demonstrated their dedication to the cause of justice through their exemplary work on women’s rights and crime prevention,” said John Jay College President Karol V. Mason, who will preside over the ceremonies. “We look forward to welcoming them as official members of our college community and as inspirations for our exceptional graduating class.”           

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

For over 30 years, Manjoo has been an international human rights advocate, particularly in the area of women’s rights as human rights. She was a trailblazer in the fight for a binding global treaty to recognize extreme domestic violence against women as human rights violations. Appointed as the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 2009, a position that she held until 2015, Manjoo gave special attention to violence against women and girls with disabilities. Her thematic reports to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly have focused on state responsibility to act with due diligence to promote and protect all the rights of all women.   Prior to her work at the United Nations, Manjoo had decades of experience as an anti-Apartheid activist and women’s liberation campaigner in South Africa. Trained as a lawyer, she also served as the former Parliamentary Commissioner of the Commission on Gender Equality (CGE) of South Africa, where she was involved in active research and in the monitoring of the country’s progress in promoting and protecting women’s rights.  She is currently the co-convenor of the Human Rights Program within the Law Faculty at the University of Cape Town and has authored many reports, journal articles, and books including Women’s Charters and Declarations: Building Another World.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

One of the most important figures in criminal justice research and education, Clarke has helped to transform the study of criminology over the past four decades. His work has reshaped crime prevention strategies worldwide to focus on changing the characteristics of the situations in which crimes occur. Over the past 25 years, this concept has help lead to significant crime reduction in New York City, the United States and other nations. Clarke previously worked in various capacities for the Home Office Research and Planning Unit, the British government’s criminological research department, where he became director in 1982. While at the Home Office, Clarke helped to develop the rational choice theory on crime and to launch the British Crime Survey, the British counterpart to the U.S. National Crime Victimization Survey. He began his academic career in the United States in 1984 as a professor at Temple University and later became the Dean of the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University. Clarke is the associate director of the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, a virtual institute supported by the U.S. Department of Justice. In 2015, he was awarded the prestigious Stockholm Prize in Criminology. The founding editor of the anthology Crime Prevention Studies, Clarke also is author or co-author of more than 300 books, monographs and papers.

Manjoo will be awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters and Clarke will receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Science. For more information about John Jay’s Commencement ceremonies, visit the Commencement site.

About John Jay College of Criminal Justice: An international leader in educating for justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice of The City University of New York offers a rich liberal arts and professional studies curriculum to upwards of 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 135 nations. John Jay is home to faculty and research centers at the forefront of researching and advancing criminal and social justice reform. In teaching, scholarship and research, the College engages the theme of justice and explores fundamental human desires for fairness, equality and the rule of law. For more information, visit www.jjay.cuny.edu.

This year’s Research & Creativity week (April 30 – May 4) is set to have some of John Jay’s most talented students present their latest innovations, research projects and portfolios.

One of the highly anticipated presentations comes from Joseph Mahmud (’18), who is creating an app that helps formerly incarcerated individuals find jobs. “My team members and I want to increase social equity by creating an app for iPhones and Androids that helps people with criminal records find and connect with future employers,” says Mahmud. “It’ll be similar to a LinkedIn or Jobwell, but with companies open to and looking to hire this demographic to increase their diversity and make a social impact.”  

Mahmud, a Public Policy and Administration major, and his fellow team members, Steven Pacheco, a CUNY B.A. major, and Donauta Watson-Starcevic, an English major, are the inaugural fellows of the Ron Moelis Social Innovation Fellowship, and they’re in the process of submitting their app plans to the Echoing Green Social Impact Challenge competition. “It’s great having a team with diverse backgrounds,” says Mahmud, “because we all bring different perspectives to the project.”  

Being a Pinkerton Fellow at The Legal Aid Society and working with the Prisoner Reentry Institute (PRI) has shown Mahmud the gaps formerly incarcerated individuals face when reaching for a second chance at success. “With my Human Resources concentration, I’m hoping to open the doors to different human resource organizations,” says Mahmud. “I’d like to help companies understand if their hiring polices are out-of-date, or if they’re indirectly detrimental to society.”

After graduation Mahmud is planning on getting his master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration through John Jay’s MPA program. But before graduation, he’s primed and ready to wow his fellow students, faculty, staff and visitors with his app presentation on May 3 during Research & Creativity Week.

Check the Research & Creativity Week calendar for a full listing of events.

John Jay is known as a leader in preparing students for careers in international relations, and this March, following a years-long tradition, students and faculty members participated in the 62nd United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW). The annual two-week series is devoted to exploring issues that impact women across the globe and finding solutions to gender inequity.

In past years, students have attended session events at the U.N. headquarters. For this year’s UNCSW, which was focused on empowering rural women and girls, faculty members Jodie Roure and Gabriela Ramirez-Vargas of the Latin American Studies Department received an invitation to organize a UN-sponsored panel at John Jay. According to Ramirez-Vargas, the invitation was extended for two reasons: Roure’s extensive research into the rise of domestic violence against women in Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Maria, and Roure’s commitment to involving students in her work.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

“We like to include students at every level,” says Ramirez-Vargas, who moderated the panel and recruited students to collect the data she presented. The panel explored how international law could eliminate violence, and it featured several prominent speakers from across the globe, including Rashida Manjoo, Professor at the University of Cape Town and Former U.N. Special Rapporteur for Violence Against Women. Students had the opportunity to meet and network with Manjoo and others, an experience that Ramirez-Vargas says is extremely valuable for their future careers.

“These opportunities open up doors for students,” she says. “Hearing these leaders tell their stories and how they got to their positions inspires students. Even being inside the U.N. building is empowering.”

Graduate students from the International Crime and Justice Department also partook in UNCSW events. Gloria Genao, who is completing a master’s degree in International Crime and Justice, is an intern at the International Sociological Association (ISA), an organization that she represents at U.N. General Assembly meetings. She organized a side event for the UNCSW, and while it shocked her to learn facts like half of all rural women lack basic literacy skills, the conference ultimately filled her with hope. “We’re in 2018, but a lot of women are still suffering,” she says. “It was amazing to see so many countries—from Sierra Leone to Spain—coming together to try to make a difference.”

Genao, who speaks English, Spanish, and French, earned a law degree in the Dominican Republic, where she was born and raised. When she moved to New York, she enrolled in John Jay with an interest in learning more about international law, but because she had never taken classes in English, the program was at times difficult. “For me, it wasn’t easy to get this degree because I think in Spanish,” she says.

Despite the obstacles, Genao exceled and will graduate in May. Genao, who is in the process of becoming a citizen, expects the opportunities she’s received at John Jay to lead to new possibilities for her career. “With this master’s, I hope I can become even more involved at UN and start working on international cases,” she says. “I’m in love with this field.”

Ismary Calderon makes courage look easy, even though she describes herself as shy. During her first year at John Jay, she started an internship with the Unaccompanied Latin American Minor Project (U-LAMP), and ever since then, she’s been learning how to use her voice as a leader for change, especially in the field of immigrant rights. Through the internship, Calderon served as a pro-bono translator and interpreter to help children communicate with immigration lawyers. “It was life-changing,” Calderon says.

As an undocumented student with family in both the U.S. and Mexico, the work hit close to home. Calderon soon realized that she was driven to complete her education in order to help people in need.

“Money doesn’t matter,” Calderon says. “I can use my bilingual skills in an environment in which I am needed and have passion for. Who doesn’t want to work in an environment they’re passionate about?” 

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

During her sophomore year, she became part of CUNY Dreamers, a student-led organization dedicated to supporting all CUNY students regardless of immigration status. Since then, she has become more involved in local and national activism, joining the John Jay Dreamers and frequently traveling to D.C. with the group United We Dream to support Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the federal immigration bill that has come under fire under the current administration. In D.C., she used creative ways to get the attention of legislators, even setting up a cage-like structure using PVC pipes to symbolize feeling trapped by harsh immigration policies. That action, and others that Calderon was involved with, made national headlines.

“In spite of being undocumented, in spite of being in a minority group, in spite of it all, I realize I have a lot of power,” Calderon says. “Even though I shake when I speak, or my voice wants to break, I look at the people fighting beside me and I remember their stories.”

Calderon says that thinking of the children that she provided legal help to with U-LAMP motivates her to continue her activism. “Being undocumented made me see that I could be either person—I could be the lawyer in the future, or I could be the person in the deportation proceedings,” she says. 

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Last year, Calderon switched her major to Spanish in order to perfect her translation skills, so she can continue to work with immigrant communities. But Calderon continues to indulge her love for science by taking Environmental Studies classes and encouraging her classmates to think in greener ways. As someone who grew up taking walks on the Staten Island shoreline, she is committed to using what she learns to promote protecting the environment.

“My experience here has been beyond inspirational,” Calderon says of her time overall at John Jay. The community Calderon has built on campus has become like a second family, but right now, her real family is divided. While Calderon pursues her degree in New York, her mother lives in Mexico. But despite the distance, the bond between the two women is obvious. When asked to pose for the photo to run with this article, Calderon’s face lights up. “Yes!” she says, without hesitation. “My mother will be so excited to see me.”

On March 23, during Women’s History Month, John Jay hosted the first-ever Symposium on Women in Law Enforcement, sponsored by the John Jay College Department of Public Safety and the FBI-New York Office, and with generous support from Siemens Corporation. The daylong conference featured presentations from invited guests and John Jay faculty members on current topics in the field, including cybersecurity, community policing, and the opioid crisis. In attendance were alumni and students, as well as women employed in law enforcement, some of whom traveled from out of state to network and receive professional development on navigating the largely male-dominated field.

President Karol V. Mason opened the conference by recognizing John Jay’s status as a leader in criminal justice education: “As a college with over 55 percent female enrollment and many students aiming for a career in law enforcement, I can’t think of a more fitting place to have these discussions. By welcoming and encouraging more women leaders to join law enforcement, we’re more likely to make our communities safer and more just.” 

John Jay faculty members Dr. Mangai Natarajan and Dr. Rosemary Barberet highlighted gender disparities in the criminal justice world, as well as the obstacles that contribute them, including maternity-leave issues and a lack of upward mobility for women. Barberet, who is editor of the journal Feminist Criminology, also announced the launch of a special issue that examines the experiences of women in criminal justice professions.

“There’s a fair amount of literature written about women as offenders and a huge amount written about women as survivors of violence,” Barberet said. “But there’s little on women in the criminal justice profession. If you want to study criminal justice, you have to know not only who we deal with, but who we are. If women are underrepresented, that’s a worrisome thing.”

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Dr. Tracie L. Keesee, Officer of Inclusivity and Diversity at the NYPD, pointed out that today, 18% of the NYPD is comprised of women. But despite this sizable number, women still face several challenges, including being given a disproportionate amount of administrative work, regardless of their strengths and interests. The office Keesee works for, which was developed at the beginning of 2018, seeks to eliminate those obstacles.

“This is a wonderful career, but is it perfect? No,” Keesee told the audience. “But can it be perfect? Yes.”

Conference attendants also heard from women whose experiences in law enforcement opened the door to a range of related careers. Sarah Bynum, Director of Security at Siemens Energy, spoke about utilizing the skills she gained after 20 years of enforcement experience to enter the world of security. She now handles physical security, intellectual property protection, and crisis management at one of the largest industrial engineering companies in the world. “If you can solve a house burglary, you can solve anything,” Bynum said.

The idea for the conference came about when FBI-NY Supervisory Special Agent Dina Thompson contacted Dr. Diego Redondo, Director of Public Safety, with concerns that there weren’t enough training opportunities specifically for women in law enforcement. Given that the conference was the first of its kind, Barberet considers it a tremendous success and sees potential for it to grow in the future, including as a professional development resource for John Jay’s undergraduate students. “I think this is the sort of thing that our undergraduates should attend,” she said. “That way, they can see role models.”

Monica Zambrano Saquicela has always been ahead of the game. When she arrived to John Jay as a transfer student during her sophomore year, she immediately started taking graduate-level classes through the College’s combined Baccalaureate/Master’s Degree Program. This year, she’ll be graduating with an MPA in Inspection and Oversight, which allows her to pursue her dream of fighting international fraud and corruption.

Zambrano Saquicela, who is passionate about creating a just world for all, believes that inspection and oversight is essential for positive change. “There’s a lack of accountability in government,” she said. “I’m learning the mechanisms to prevent abuse and fraud.”

This year, Zambrano Saquicela and two other John Jay students attended the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA)-Batten Student Simulation, hosted at Baruch College, in order to gain an understanding of what it’s actually like to work in public administration. In a team of students from different colleges around New York, Zambrano Saquicela responded to a fictional pandemic using a computer simulation. Despite it being the first year that John Jay students attended, Zambrano Saquicela’s team won the competition. Their work will be sent to global judges that will rank it against local winners from other competition sites from all over the world. 

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

For Zambrano Saquicela, competing in the NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation was exhilarating, especially because she utilized skills that a real crisis would require, including quick thinking. “We were writing policy and recommendations in a one hour time frame,” she said. “Our team went in giving it our all.”

It isn’t the first time that Zambrano Saquicela has demonstrated excellence in her ability to respond to complex public administration problems. She currently sits on the executive board of the John Jay United Nations Student Association (UNSA), which has competed for over 13 years in the annual National Model United Nations event with thousands of students from all over the world. In 2016, the John Jay team earned the conference’s top honor, the Outstanding Delegation Award. 

Though Zambrano Saquicela grew up in New York, it’s only because of her involvement with UNSA that she’s been able to visit the United Nations General Assembly. The experience was eye-opening in that it allowed her to understand how global governance could help people in need.

“Working at the UN is my dream job,” she says. “There are so many global issues I care about, and I believe in the UN’s mission of influencing governance around the globe. My parents are Ecuadorian, and I grew up traveling to Ecuador, so I’ve always wanted to travel and have an influence on other nations.”

Zambrano Saquicela is doing all she can to prepare herself for that dream career and is finding the opportunities at John Jay to do so. She credits her professors as people who are deeply invested in the success of their students and have a wealth of knowledge to share. Equipped with that knowledge, Zambrano Saquicela, who is the first in her family to pursue a master’s degree, anticipates graduating so she can begin a fruitful public service career. “I have a lot of hope because I have so much interest and passion,” she says. “The challenge is finding your starting point, but I’m sure I’ll find my way.”

This year’s Research & Creativity Week (April 30 – May 4) will feature John Jay’s talented student researchers, including those that are receiving awards for groundbreaking innovations in the sciences.

Lisset Duran (’18), who is part of the Program for Research Initiatives in Science and Math (PRISM), is the first student at John Jay to ever receive the extremely prestigious CUNY Jonas Salk Award, which is given to graduating students for their potential to make significant contributions to medical research. The award recognized her research in genetics, which she’ll be presenting at Research & Creativity Week.

“My research has been on the regulation of genes in breast cancer,” says Duran. “By targeting certain proteins, I want to understand the expressions of genes that are beneficial to cells.”

Recognition of Duran’s research has been nationwide, and prior to earning the Salk Award, Duran attended the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) conference and the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) Annual Meeting, where she was given awards for the quality of her research as well as her presentation skills. “Part of being a scientist is being able to communicate,” says Duran.

Duran, who is graduating with an undergraduate degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology, will be attending Princeton’s Ph.D. program in biology this fall, and she eventually dreams of working with NASA. “I have crazy dreams and PRISM has always supported them,” she says. “At John Jay, I’ve been doing research on a graduate student level, and I’ve been given so much responsibility. That’s why I feel so well prepared for my Ph.D.”

But before she leaves campus, she’s prepared to impress those who want to learn more about her research. John Jay community members and visitors will be able to witness for themselves Duran’s findings on May 2.

Check the Research & Creativity Week calendar for a full listing of events.

Cuando la profesora Silvia Dapía llegó a John Jay en 2010, el Departamento de Lenguas y Literaturas Modernas no ofrecía programa alguno en estudios de español, por lo que se embarcó en el proyecto de cubrir esta necesidad que consideraba imperante: crear una licenciatura en lengua española en la universidad con las mayores cifras de alumnado hispano del noreste de los Estados Unidos. “La idea fundamental –explica Dapía– era responder al elevado número de estudiantes de origen hispano que hay en John Jay y permitirles desarrollar los conocimientos y destrezas que ya poseen con el fin e conseguir una licenciatura”.

Cinco años más tarde, la profesora Dapía, directora del departamento y experta en literatura y cultura latinoamericana, alemana y francesa, consiguió su objetivo con el lanzamiento oficial de la Licenciatura en español (B.A. in Spanish) el pasado otoño, que se erige como el único programa en lengua extranjera dentro del conjunto de 31 licenciaturas que ofrece la institución. La creación de esta nueva licenciatura en español –junto a la especialización secundaria (minor) y los programas de certific do en español, que también se desarrollaron recientemente– reconoce el papel esencial que desempeñan las humanidades y las lenguas modernas en la oferta educativa en artes liberales de una universidad dedicada a educar para la justicia.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Este nuevo programa, que se encuentra en el segundo semestre desde su implementación, cuenta ya con 31 estudiantes matriculados. Dapía prevé que el interés entre el alumnado de John Jay continuará aumentando. Y con razón. El español es la segunda lengua más hablada en el mundo, es idioma oficial en, al menos, 21 países y se ha convertido en la segunda lengua de uso más extendido en los Estados Unidos. Además, su relevancia va en aumento. El centro de investigaciones Pew Research Center calcula que el número de hispanos que residen en los Estados Unidos llegará al 29% en 2050, lo que nos convertirá en el país con el mayor número de hablantes de español del mundo. La realidad del mercado laboral va a la par: la Oficina de Estadísticas de Empleo (Bureau of Labor Statistics) estima que los puestos de trabajo en traducción e interpretación aumentarán un 46% y sitúa estas profesiones entre las que gozarán de mayor crecimiento en la nación. Otros indicadores apuntan a tendencias similares: una encuesta reciente elaborada por CNN Money indica que el bilingüismo ha pasado a ser un elemento clave en el mercado laboral, mientras que otro relevante estudio de Korn Ferry muestra que el 79% de las empresas de selección de personal afirman que el español es la segunda lengua más demandada por los empleadores norteamericanos.

April, 2018, New York, NY—For the 14th consecutive year, John Jay ranked among the top ten percent of colleges and universities at the National Model United Nations (NMUN), which competed with one another in a week-long global competition that brought together approximately 5,500 students from over 30 countries around the world.

Each year, NMUN delegations represent a different member state of the United Nations, with John Jay this year representing the Kingdom of Morocco. President Hannah Amodine led the United Nations Student Association (UNSA) along with Secretary Monica Zambrano. The team was advised and mentored by Professor Jacques Fomerand of the Department of Political Science.

After two semesters of extensive preparation, the team gathered for the annual conference from March 25–29 at the Sheraton and Hilton hotels in New York City. There, they served as delegates on a number of Model U.N. committees, in which they deliberated, negotiated, drafted and adopted resolutions and prepared reports on a wide range of politically sensitive issues, including: cybersecurity, measures to counter terrorism, combating the illicit small arms and light weapons trade (General Assembly First Committee); aid effectiveness, the role of urbanization in sustainable development (General Assembly Second Committee); the rights of people to self-determination, the elimination of all forms of religious intolerance, equitable access to education (General Assembly Third Committee);improving mechanisms of transparency and accountability within the UN system,  strengthening accountability in regard to sexual exploitation in field missions, UN reform (General Assembly Fifth Committee);  the conservation and restoration of ecosystems in urban areas, empowering youth for sustainable development, the impact of pollution on marine life (United Nations Environment Assembly); the impact of climate change on World Heritage Sites, fostering environments for freedom of expression, combatting illicit trafficking of cultural property (UNESCO); promoting citizen citizenship among youth, using ICT to promote gender equality, advancing human rights and development through artificial intelligence (International Telecommunications Union); the complete eradication of chemical weapons, providing protection and assistance to victims of chemical weapons, the role of OPCW in counter terrorism (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, OPCW); achieving the Arab Development Outlook, strengthening Arab least developed countries, reducing the occurrence of gender-based violence (Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, ESCWA); and addressing climate migration, migration in Libya, strengthening cooperation between IOM and civil society (International Organization for Migration, IOM).

John Jay’s team received an Honorable Delegation award which recognizes the quality of the preparation, participation and contributions of the overall delegation in all committees. An additional award was given to General Assembly Committee 5, represented by Dillon and Nicole for their Outstanding Position Paper, and another was given to General Assembly Committee 5 for the outstanding delegation floor work carried out by Kyle Roberts and Boukary Salogo.

Throughout the fall and spring semesters, the 24-member team regularly trained for the conference, meeting for two to three hours every Friday at 6:00PM, as well as countless hours throughout the week and fall break. They honed their research skills, drafted position papers, rehearsed their public speaking skills, refined their mediating and consensus building techniques while mastering the intricacies of UN procedures and familiarizing themselves with issues of global concern.

John Jay’s 2017-2018 NMUN team included students from a wide variety of academic disciplines, the executives of numerous student organizations, Presidential Interns, Vera Fellows, McNair Scholars, members of the Honors Program and Student-Athletes. These students, with roots in over a dozen countries, were: Hanna Amodine, Raman Banwait, Lynnel Brice, Alondra Cuevas, Dillon Epperson, Justin Guico, Niven Hemraj, Genan Ismail, Amanda Jamal, Nicole Kalczynski, Samuel Keselman, Suzanna Komyshan, Meerim Madakimova, Oscar Marin, Sammy Nijem, Christian Perez, Nimra Raja, Kyle Roberts, Eugenio Rotondi, Boukary Salogo, Sean Skeeters and Monica Zambrano.

#

About John Jay College of Criminal Justice: An international leader in educating for justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice of The City University of New York offers a rich liberal arts and professional studies curriculum to upwards of 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 135 nations. John Jay is home to faculty and research centers at the forefront of researching and advancing criminal and social justice reform. In teaching, scholarship and research, the College engages the theme of justice and explores fundamental human desires for fairness, equality and the rule of law. For more information, visit www.jjay.cuny.edu.

This year’s Research & Creativity Week (April 30 – May 4) will feature John Jay’s talented and creative student innovators, including those that are discovering new ways of using stories to promote equity and justice.

Karen Argueta (’18), who is graduating this May with a major in Criminology, is a Senior Producer with Life Out Loud, a literary nonfiction podcast based out of John Jay. For Research & Creativity Week, she’s inviting John Jay community members to listen to the amazing true stories she’s made into podcast episodes using equipment here at John Jay.

“It’s more than storytelling,” says Argueta. “We spend so much time and energy researching and teaching ourselves to sound edit and use a sound board. Most college students don’t necessarily think to pick up those skills.”

Argueta, who first became involved after Professor Christen Madrazo in the English Department invited her to help produce the podcast, believes that everyone’s perspective is valuable, and that part of her work is to create a platform for voices that usually go unheard. “Hearing from people you don’t normally hear from is of great social importance,” she says. “The stories we feature are from young people of color, with different sexual orientations and genders. There are a lot of societal undertones to take away from their stories.”

When Argueta finds several stories that fit a theme, she converts them into episodes that range from hilarious to humbling, and are on topics as varied as friendship, the pursuit of the American dream, and navigating cultural boundaries. For Argueta, who has a unique story of her own as an immigrant from El Salvador who grew up in Long Island, hearing true life stories from many of her peers on campus has been transformational. “The podcast has changed my life in regards to the way I view humanity,” she says. “I never assume anything about people. Everyone surprises me.”

John Jay community members and visitors will be able to hear listen to the stories Argueta produces for Life Out Loud on May 1.

Check the Research & Creativity Week calendar for a full listing of events.

When Torey McNeil graduated last year, the president asked how many students worked either a part-time or full-time jobs. “The entire audience stood up,” says McNeil. “That’s who we are at John Jay, we’re working jobs and we’re driven. With that drive we lead our own way to success.”

Getting to John Jay was a long journey for McNeil. “I graduated from Holy Trinity High School in Hicksville, New York. I was planning on going into the military or becoming a cop,” says McNeil. “Unfortunately, my first time applying to John Jay, I didn’t get accepted. But John Jay had everything I wanted, so I kept trying.”

Along the way, McNeil attended SUNY Canton for one year. “But it was just too expensive,” he says. So, he transferred to Suffolk Community College, and received his A.S. in Criminal Justice. Through it all, he worked multiple jobs to make ends meet.  “I had a security guard license, and I was working some crazy hours in security,” says McNeil. “I also worked in a call center and I was cleaning windows at the mall. I was working all those jobs so I could continue my education.”

Luckily, after finishing at Suffolk Community College, he transferred to his dream school and became a junior at John Jay. “It was challenging, the most challenging experience I’ve ever been through, and I loved every minute of it,” says McNeil. “But at the time, my family was going through some crazy stuff, and my mother gave me and my brother a talk. Basically, she said it was time for us to move out.”

McNeil managed to make rent, graduate from John Jay within two years with a B.S. in Criminal Justice, work security at the World Trade Center, work with the American Red Cross and fill in the financial gaps with “side hustle” jobs.

After graduating in 2017, and embarking on a career as a contracted Watch Analyst for the Office of Emergency Management at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, McNeil started thinking back to his financial struggles while trying to earn his degree. “One of the biggest upsets I have is hearing about friends still trying to get their degree from John Jay. If they say they have to take a year off because of finances, the truth is, they don’t come back,” says McNeil.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

That’s why McNeil, who as of May 1 will be the new Sr. Manager of Flier Relations and Security for Fly BLADE, started the Lead Your Way Scholarship for students attending John Jay College who work over 40 hours a week. “I’m hoping that this scholarship will help a student that’s in the same exact situation that I was in. I want the Lead Your Way Scholarship to help ease some of the financial pressure. That way, instead of working overtime, maybe the student can spend time with their classmates or their kids,” says McNeil. “It’s only $2000 right now—$1000 a semester—but I’m hoping to build on it and get more people involved.”

For more information on scholarship donations, visit: jjay.cuny.edu/giving

On the hit show NCIS Pauley Perrette, who studied at John Jay College herself, plays a quirky, crime-solving forensic scientist named “Abby Sciuto.” In every episode “Abby” uses cutting-edge technology to help solve U.S. Navy criminal investigations—a career path many of our students aspire to reach.

Thinking back to her time at John Jay, Perrette established the Pauley Perrette Forensic Science Scholarship to help support John Jay undergraduate students that traditionally have been underrepresented in the Forensic Sciences. “I wanted to set up the scholarship in honor of the impact my NCIS character ‘Abby’ has had around the world over the last 15 years,” says Perrette. The groundbreaking character made Perrette one of the most popular actresses on primetime television, and motivated thousands of young women to pursue careers in math and science.

“I hope this scholarship provides an opportunity for a deserving young person to accomplish their dream of acquiring an education in Forensic Science,” says Perrette. And with her help, more real-life versions of “Abby” will have the opportunity to make a difference in our criminal justice system.

Learn more about the Pauley Perrette Forensic Science Scholarship.

Read more about Pauley Perrette’s career and commitment to Forensic Science studies.