My connection with Security and Risk Analysis is that it is my major at Penn State University. I am also the Intelligence modeling option. I am interested in Security and Risk Analysis because I have a growing interest in security, whether it is physically security such as law enforcement or military or it could even be cyber security such as protecting a firms assets. I am currently a junior, and have been involved with the major for a year. Originally I was a business major, but it just did not excite me as much as Security Risk Analysis does. This past summer I was an Intern with Somerset County Prosecutors offices. There I worked with the counter terrorism unit, gang unit, intelligence unit, and narcotics unit. While working with the counter terrorism unit, I worked hand-in-hand with the Department of Homeland Security. Although I am not able to discuss the cases that I worked on, I can say that it was a growing experience for me and really sparked my interest. After the internship was done I really got an idea of what I wanted to do with my life. I started to focus more on the federal aspect of law enforcement such as the Federal Bauru of Investigations and the Department of Homeland Security. This is because I really have a passion for stopping terrorism, whether it’s foreign or domestic. Because of this, in May of this year, I plan of shipping out to Officer Candidate school for the United States Marine Corps. This will be two, six week sessions on the Marine Corps base in Quantico Virginia. I will be doing my first session this summer, and my second session right after I graduate. I hope to get my orders in the infantry unit or in the mortars unit. There I will be leading my team of men into battle and training them to be the best Marines they can be. I believe that this will give me an advantage when I get out into the work force. This is because a lot of the departments that I will be applying to really like to see a military background on your resume. Especially if they see that you were an officer.
I chose to take this Crisis Informatics class because It had a lot to do with what I did over the summer. When I was not working at the prosecutor’s officer, I worked for the county’s Office of Emergency Management. There, I worked with the county coordinator in efforts to maximize the potential of the emergency plans. We analyzed the plans that were already in place, and looked to see how we can improve them and get the most out of the assets that we have. I believe this class will give me more of an understanding as to why we did the things that we did.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI will be reading and grading your blog posts starting after this one, and will be posing feedback in a comment as well as a rubric.
You work experience sounds very applicable to this course especially your work in the Office of Emergency Management. Hopefully you will be able to bring some examples from work into class. Thanks for introducing yourself and I look forward to reading more posts.
Just a reminder don't forget to comment on 2 other blogs each week.
Greg Traylor
Hey, I also have the same option as you do in SRA with the Intelligence and modeling. This class sounds pretty interesting and I'm hoping to find a similar internship to the one you had last summer. I am also considering going back to school for an extra year to pick up a minor is IST, but I am not sure yet. This class sounds very promising and should be a good addition to all of our resumes.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading through your post your internship really caught my eye it sounded really interesting. I for sure want to get into some time of internship like that may I ask how you got into that specific one? I think it would be really cool to work for the government after graduation.
I think this class is going to be very interesting and I am looking forward to hearing about all of the crazy events that are taking place all over the world in recent days. Hurricane Irene sounds like a good topic to write for our first personal blog also maybe even the last earthquake that hit Virginia while we were all in class. Just something to think about.
Finally I want to say I'm glad the teacher set the class up this way. I believe the class is set up for success because having everyone reading each others blogs id a good way for us all to find a little but more about each other. This will create a solid working environment because we will all be familiar with each other already through blogging. I feel that this prototype class will be a huge success and will be offered for many more years to come to oncoming new students. Well, it was nice commenting I will see you all in class this coming Monday enjoy the weekend.