FSU graduates are the first recruits in a prestigious new police program.

When the 1994 Crime Bill passed, and President Clinton promised 100,000 new police officers out on the streets of America, the U.S. Justice Department faced a daunting task: How?

The solution was the creation of the Police Corps–an innovative federal program designed to attract the best and the brightest young people to law enforcement positions in communities where the need is the greatest and where there is strong emphasis on community involvement. College students pursuing baccalaureate or graduate degrees are recruited to undergo a rigorous 950-hour law enforcement training program which is conducted by a "lead agency" for a particular state. The recruits agree to work for at least the first four years following program completion at a pre-assigned law enforcement agency within that state.

FSU Leads the State
Given its extensive law enforcement background, FSU was a natural to be selected as lead agency for Michigan's Police Corps program. "We already run the largest pre-service college program in the state," says Bob Parsons, Police Corps director and Criminal Justice professor.

As lead agency, Ferris agrees to recruit both the students and the community agencies they'll work for, provide housing for the students, conduct all the training, and match the students with the agencies after they complete the program.

Hi-Tech Toys and Training

Students receive 150 hours of hands-on training during which the trainees are placed in a mock crime scene such as a bank robbery or a volatile domestic dispute.

"They then have to interact and resolve the problem–maybe make arrests or even end up in a [simulated] shootout," said Parsons. "The scenarios are all designed to prepare students for the real world."

Twenty-six recruits graduated from Michigan's Police Corps at Ferris State University on October 15 and are now working for 17 agencies around the state.

The first Automotive Engineering and Design Academy recently dispelled a few myths for 20 middle-school students from Wyoming Public Schools. First, automotive engineering does not mean standing at an assembly line, wearing big gloves and ducking sparks. It's a creative career that requires critical thinking and good math skills.

Second, there is money to be made–lots of it–and third, automotive engineers and designers are in high demand right now. So much so that last spring Charles Steen, Economic Development Coordinator for Wyoming, approached Ferris State University to institute a program for middle school youth that focuses on the design and manufacture of automobiles.

Wyoming has a high concentration of automotive industry suppliers who are concerned about their ability to find qualified workers well into the future. The result was a weeklong pilot program coordinated between Ferris, Kendall College of Art and Design, the city of Wyoming and Wyoming Public Schools.

Twelve girls and eight boys began their experience learning about how a car is designed via computer-aided design programs at Kendall. Then they spent several days in the Automotive Technology Labs at Ferris studying automobile components from the engine to the interior to the drive train and body. The last two days of the program brought the students onto the manufacturing floor to see how everything they learned comes together to create an automobile.

Wyoming-area automotive suppliers provided instructors and scholarships and hosted the students within their plants. Participating businesses included Benteler Automotive Hagen Drive Operation, Delphi Automotive Systems, Die-Tron, Leon Plastics, Inc., Future Tool & Die, General Motors Stamping and Model Die & Mold.