I currently attend WSU and am majoring in Criminal Justice/Criminology, with minors in both psychology and Spanish. While a degree is not required in the field I intend to pursue initially (law enforcement), I will need it in order to excel through the ranks, where I intend to spend several years pursuing the goal as a homicide detective. I want to be able to make my community a safer place for all people, regardless of their demographic. I attend university not only as a student, but as a police cadet where I learn the fundamentals and hone my abilities to perform as a cop. The Cadet program is a rigorous internship that has the primary goal of producing competent and honorable police officers, and providing students with the skills and tools they need to excel in their field in law enforcement. This program gives cadets a huge leg up on other police academy applicants, and is renowned among many law enforcement agencies across the state of Washington to produce excellent police officers. I've already proven my competance and leadership ability through my several promotions, from C2 to C1, C1 to night patrol sergeant. As a sergeant, I oversaw a squad of cadets, ensuring their growth and supervise them during security contracts. Recently, I promoted to administrative lieutenant, where I will manage the finances and invoices, as well as balancing tasks from the cadet captain and officers. This program provides so many vital opportunities for me that are crucial in any law enforcement officer’s profession. The most frequent of them are the weekly trainings provided. Every week, there totals up to five different trainings, all led by a full-time police officer, each with its own specialization and learning goals. Additionally, I must go on monthly ride-alongs with police officers, provide extra support at large school sporting events, supply the school with nightly security, and much, much more. The first training is the traditional class setting, where an officer chooses a topic which they are knowledgeable about, and lectures cadets for two hours on what the topic is applicable to and how it applies to a cadet’s future in law enforcement. These trainings not only taught me the basics of law enforcement, but also trained me in resiliance and time management in a busy time. My personal favorite of these would probably be meeting on criminal law, which I found integral to my goals in both detective work and being able to excel to captain. The cadet program also creates mock scenarios to be able to put their skills to practice. These weekly trainings are especially important, as they are a large portion of the curriculum in many police academies. Following that, the program requires both physical training and defensive tactics training, where a cadet must be able to pass the Washington State PAT and must have twenty hours sunk into defensive tactics training in order to be promoted. Giving us the opportunity to grapple and learn the basics of handcuffing, to complicated takedowns and handcuff defense maneuvers, defensive tactics is one of my favorite trainings, and one that is instrumental in an officer's success on the field. Finally, I take advantage of the cadet program's SWAT training, where I learn the basics of building sweeps, field medicine, and leading a group to success. We develop a strong sense of leadership and teamwork when we sweep buildings, breach doors, and cuff suspects. All of these opportunities are certain to give me an advantage when pursuing promotions when I get into the law enforcement field. My primary goal is to become a major crimes detective, specifically for homicide or missing persons. I plan to build rapport with my community, earning their trust in me and the police in general. In years following that, I plan on achieving a policy-making position to better reflect what law enforcement was supposed to be all along. Over the years, people have lost faith in the competency of the police, and I intend to fix that with internal policy, a strict code of conduct, and a priority of mental health and strong morals in officers. In short, the WSU Police Cadet Program has been an essential foundation for my future in law enforcement, giving me hands-on experience, specialized training, and a deeper understanding of what it takes to serve with integrity. From classroom instruction and ride-alongs to defensive tactics and SWAT simulations, every aspect of the program has sharpened my skills and strengthened my resolve to become a competent, compassionate, and community-focused officer. This experience is not just preparing me for a career, but molding me into the leader I want to be. I want to be a beacon of hope. I look at the news every day and see the same message being tossed around: our law enforcement system is untrustworthy, it is dishonest, and it is cruel. It needs a new pair of eyes, it needs an entirely new generation to run it. I want to make law enforcement a more credible force, I want it to protect and serve, I want it to be the guiding hand of good; not the soldier, not the punishing belt, not the eyes of Big Brother. This is my motive, and this is the broken, misguided path that I have decided I will repave for the future.

Growing up, I never thought of myself as having a disability. I did what I was told, excelled in school, and performed well enough to get by. While it was always difficult to keep my mouth shut when it needed to be, none of these symptoms stood out enough to warrant a deeper look. After all, my inability to make friends or act normal in social situations was completely negated by the fact that I did so well with a strict schedule. Problems developed when I started college. By then, both my older brother and sister had been diagnosed with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. I refused to believe that there was anything “wrong” with me, but my roommates realized right away. I couldn’t function without my planner, I got distracted in the middle of tasks, and I never remembered the shifts I picked up at my internship. Several situations come to mind from a pre-treatment era, where I would forget I signed up to do security night patrol, and was called by someone leading the shift as a reminder. One such occasion I was hurling profanities as I sprinted out the door to turn a 10 minute bike ride into a 5 minute one. The other occasion I had planned to go stargazing with my boyfriend and a group of friends, and had to ditch my boyfriend on the side of the road while I did security for the college. He was less than thrilled. Only after I developed coping mechanisms and sought out treatment for my ADHD did I really begin to understand it. I wrestled with it, refusing to accept defeat, refusing to incorporate it into my life, refusing to change my old habits that work for neurotypical people to find something that worked for me. I would hold standards for myself that weren’t realistic, and refused accommodations made for people like me, because I didn’t accept that I was a person like me. It took me a while to accept myself as I am, and I understand that others go through many of the same struggles. I want to use this experience to create change in the justice system. As someone entering the world of law enforcement, I understand that people with disabilities are some of the most victimized people in the population, but I know that they can be the most resilient. People with mental disorders are often the most misunderstood and feared in policing. They are 4x as likely to be brutalized in a police encounter as a neurotypical person, and many encounter police as a result in their mental health journey. I want to end the ignorance and fear that causes so much pain in this community. Police officers deal with many mental health crises, with approximately 20% of all calls being mental health or substance use -related, according to the American Psychological Association. I am a firm believer that not all these calls require police, but trained psychological professionals equipped to deal with mental health crises. Training is absolutely necessary for officers to deal with these situations, yet they receive little to none, leading to tragic outcomes that could have been eliminated with different resources and different tools. With my education in criminal justice, as well as my internship training in law enforcement, I know that I can become a catalyst for positive change all over policing. With policy changes, training adaptations, and knowing when armed peace officers are or are not necessary, we can create a safer environment for all people and ensure treatment and acceptance for those who need it.