Experience Matters - Grand Valley State University

AmeriCorps Internship!

Victoria
Major: Criminal Justice As an AmeriCorps member, it was my job to build capacity and help the organization grow in some problem areas. I primarily work with the resettlement team, who assist refugees their first 90 days in the country, and the community engagement team. I communicate with donors and uphold partnerships with nonprofits to help acquire resources and items to assist our clients.

AmeriCorps Internship!

Victoria
Major: Criminal Justice My primary task in volunteer services is to provide additional support to all programs and clients. I work with community partners, individual donors/volunteers and case managers to secure services and material goods for clients. I also do other community engagement tasks, such as grant writing and event planning.

Ride-alongs at MSP

Jordan
Major: Criminal Justice This internship was more of an observational one. I didn't really complete any tasks or projects but I witnessed them being completed. During the ride-alongs, we made traffic stops, helped with crashes, tagged abandoned vehicles, made arrests, transported prisoners to jails, and attended to wellbeing checks, suicide calls, and domestic violence/disturbance calls.

Ottawa County CPS Internship

Baleigh
Major: Criminal Justice My tasks were to mostly observe and help out when needed. I shadowed all aspects of child welfare; from CPS both investigative and ongoing to foster care. I helped with parenting times, petitions, removals, investigations, family team meetings, and creating genograms to name a few things.

City of Muskegon Police

Michael
Major: Criminal Justice As an intern with the City of Muskegon Police, I was a supervisor of a first year city wide project called the fight against blight I also did ride-alongs as well. This project was a big part of my internship and was important to the captains and chief to help clean up the city. It was so big that at the end of my internship I was awarded a plaque by the chief for my outstanding efforts on the fight against blight project as well as the Muskegon Chronicle came and wrote a newspaper article on the fight against blight project and what all was accomplished. Underneath I have added what my day was like daily while I was doing the project as well as a link to the newspaper article. Project Summary: The fight against blight project was a collaborative effort between the Muskegon Police Department Neighborhood Policing Unit, Michigan Department of Corrections, and the City of Muskegon Department of Public Works to eliminate blight in the City of Muskegon. The project was organized and coordinated by Neighborhood Policing Unit Officer, Rob Woods and Grand Valley State University Intern, Michael Rankin. The Michigan Department of Corrections, Parole Agent Sean Wiltenburg provided workers who were all on a probation status, and had court ordered community service hours to perform. The Superintendent of Public Works Doug Sayles provided all the equipment needed for the project. Over 500 properties were inspected throughout the City of Muskegon by the Neighborhood Policing Unit. The majority of those properties are city-owned properties, with a few belonging to the County of Muskegon, and the State Michigan. Each property on the list was assigned a number ranking from one to five. The properties in the most desperate need of clean up were assigned a number ranking of one, and those in no need of cleanup were assigned a ranking of five. Each day of the cleanup a site was chosen in a city neighborhood. The Neighborhood Policing Unit Officer of that neighborhood would then assist the intern for the day with carrying out the clean up. This would include, transporting the intern to the Department of Public Works to meet with Doug Sayles, to retrieve a dump truck and tools, contacting Agent Wiltenburg to tell him which location to bring the probationers to meet at to start the day, following the intern to and from clean up sites and dump sites, returning the equipment back to the Department of Public Works, and documenting all clean up efforts. After arriving at the cleanup site photos of the property were taken and the condition of the property was documented. The probationers would clean up the properties for community service hours. The probationers were asked to separate the tires, trash and brush, so that they could be disposed at the end of the day. The tires were placed in the tire trailer for disposal, the brush and yard waste was dumped at the landfill. The trash was deposited into a dumpster at the Department of Public Works. Each day of the project photos were taken of before and after the clean up to document all progress. The photos were then uploaded by a City of Muskegon Police Supervisor and placed with that days report. In conclusion, this program is a wonderful benefit to the City and its residents. Several lots within the City were cleaned up, improving the City's image, and the way residents feel about the surroundings they are living in. It is our opinion this program could be used as a model for future programs to rid the City of Muskegon of blight! Newspaper Article Link: http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2014/07/blight_fight_muskegon_police_h.html

Kent County Sheriff's Department Internship

Tyler
Major: Criminal Justice As an Intern, I was assigned to various shifts with various departments to perform an observation of those departments. The departments I observed were the road patrol unit, the correctional facility, detective bureau, and dispatch. During each shift I would be assigned to a deputy to observe. At the end of each shift I would complete an observation log. On road patrol shifts I would also completely a daily log of what took place during that shift.