Alumnae share personal experiences in the criminal justice field with Commonwealth University students

LOCK HAVEN- Throughout the fall 2024 semester, Dr. Katie Ely, Commonwealth University-Lock Haven criminal justice faculty member, welcomed several CU alumnae back to the classroom – in-person and virtually – to talk to students in her Women and Crime course.

Ely began teaching the course at Lock Haven in 2013 when she created it to fill a void in the criminal justice curriculum. Specifically, most of the courses did not have ample time to specifically discuss issues relating to women in criminal justice.

The course is taught as a Hyflex course, meaning students on the Lock Haven campus can attend in-person or on Zoom and students from Mansfield and Bloomsburg can attend on Zoom. Women and Crime is divided into three sections: women as victims, women as offenders and women as practitioners in the criminal justice system.

“Since the course’s inception, one of my goals was to bring in female guest speakers,” Ely said. “Over the years, I have relied on female alumnae to come back to campus to speak with the class about their experiences in their field.”

This year, as the course was offered for the first time as a Commonwealth University course, Ely sought to bring in more guest speakers and to also include alumna from Mansfield and Bloomsburg.

This semester, eight CU alumnae spoke to the 39 students in Ely’s course. The speakers hold various positions, such as public defenders, local police, probation and parole, drug and alcohol counseling, children and youth services and others.

“All of the speakers attributed much of their success to their experiences at their Commonwealth University campus and were happy to share their experiences with current students,” Ely said. “I plan to include even more speakers in future classes.”

Students in the class had a chance to ask questions and learn more about the career paths of each speaker. Guest speakers included:

• Katie Pratt (Lock Haven – Criminal Justice – 2011)
• Kristin Lindsey (Lock Haven – Criminal Justice – 2012)
• Victoria Kleintop (Lock Haven – Criminal Justice – 2012)
• Lora Rupert (Lock Haven – Criminal Justice – 2012)
• Janelle Neidig (Bloomsburg – Social Work – 2014)
• Brittney Mink (Mansfield – Criminal Justice – 2015)
• Lauren Lucas (Lock Haven – Health and Physical Education – 2016)
• Reece Zwald (Lock Haven – Criminal Justice – 2021)