Current PhD Candidate Thrilled to be Managing BU MET Criminal Justice Program

Welcome to BU MET! Please tell us a little about yourself.
Thanks for the warm welcome! Aside from being the new criminal justice program manager at BU MET, I’m also a social policy PhD candidate at the Heller School at Brandeis University. Prior to my doctoral studies, I worked in youth engagement and advising roles with several education nonprofits. I’ve also conducted reentry and parent engagement work with the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services. I grew up on the West Coast (specifically the Bay Area) but have been here for the past decade pursuing my education. I enjoy spending time with friends, exercising, watching basketball, and cooking in my free time.

Can you please briefly summarize your role at BU MET?
My role at BU MET focuses primarily on serving students and ensuring that all aspects of the Criminal Justice Program run smoothly. This means I help with registration questions, course plans and concentration questions, graduation processing, etc. However, I hope to expand my scope a bit as I start to get more acclimated to the role. I’m a part of the Correctional Reform Working Group’s executive committee and have recently begun dipping my toes into helping with our new LinkedIn page (coming soon). I have a lot of ideas and projects I hope to work on, but for now I’m still getting a feel for what happens over the course of a year, and am mostly focused on helping students!

What is your favorite aspect of the position?
I would have to say my favorite aspect of this position is getting the opportunity to work with students again. I want everyone who attends our program to have as positive an experience as possible, and I enjoy being able to help make some of that a reality. Our students are diverse in many ways and it’s really cool to hear more about their lived experiences, cultures, and how they see the program helping with their future goals. I’m always learning from them (and my coworkers)!

What brought you to your current role at MET?
For the past four years, I’ve focused a lot of attention on my PhD, but I was finding that I missed working in a more traditional setting. One of the running jokes among my fellow students is that we graduate with a terminal degree but often cannot find a job afterward, so I suppose I was trying to jump ahead of that a little bit. However, I used to work for BU and missed working with students, so the role at MET felt like the perfect fit.

What advice can you offer new students as they begin their graduate studies?
I would encourage students to think about how they can best maximize their time in the program. While everyone will have different capacities and goals, keeping an open mind about various opportunities to get involved (e.g. doing a directed study or serving as a graduate assistant) while you’re here is really important. It’s clichéd advice, but get to know your professors, fellow students and staff members because you never know how those connections may be impactful in the future. Also, make sure to give yourself some grace and ask for support. Many of our students also have jobs, or are parents/caregivers, or have other commitments (I know I did). Talk to us and let us know how we can support you because we want to help!

With regard to your MS from BU, why did you choose MET for your graduate studies? What set MET apart from other programs you were considering?
I chose MET’s MS in Criminal Justice, Strategic Management Concentration for my graduate studies because of its flexibility for adult learners. I was working full time and needed a program that allowed me to take classes in the evening, from professors accustomed to working with adult learners and who understood that we had other commitments. BU MET ended up being a great fit and I was able to have the best of both worlds where I could continue working while earning my degree. I think MET is unique in how forward thinking it is with classes, flexibility, and “stackability.” We see a lot of changes in higher ed right now and it’s clear that the old model isn’t working well (and perhaps never did) for the majority of students. MET’s programming is flexible—you can stop and start as you need to; go at whatever pace makes sense term-by-term; start with a graduate certificate and roll up to a master’s program when you’re ready. I think we’re going to see that kind of flexibility become a lot more common moving forward so it’s nice that we already have so much experience doing this.

Did earning your degree lead to a different career focus or broaden the scope of opportunity within your existing line of work? Can you share your perspective on that?
I’ve always worked a lot of different jobs and kept an open mind about what I want to do career-wise, so although earning my degree didn’t necessarily lead me to a different career focus, it definitely broadened my scope of opportunity because I was able to take on new roles that I probably wouldn’t have gotten if I didn’t have my master’s in criminal justice. As someone who went into this program from a different field (education) and is now researching something that isn’t directly related to criminal justice, I would say that this program can still absolutely bring value to you—regardless of your interests—as long as you’re strategic. I’m very grateful for all the opportunities I’ve encountered because of it!

Is there anything else you would like to add?
Just that I’m excited to be here and to work with everyone!