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A portion of Jason's winning essay:
Many of my friends tell me that I was born to work with people, and I agree with them one hundred percent. I am the type of person who will help anyone, sometimes even dropping what I am doing to help. This has led me to realize my career goals of saving lives, helping people, and serving my community…three major reasons why I have chosen to pursue a law enforcement education and career. For as long as I can remember, I have had a goal to pursue a career as a Police Officer, and obtaining a law enforcement education is the first step. My father, a thirty-two year veteran Police Officer, was the biggest influence on my decision to choose this path over other educational and career opportunities. He showed me how his job consisted of helping others and actively participating in my family’s community, two things I am very passionate about. My father showed me that law enforcement officers not only keep our community safe, but also make a positive impact on the communities they patrol by participating in community events, helping local children, and talking to offenders to help them sort out their problems and turn their lives around. All those social tasks an officer performs appeal to me tremendously since I have always loved helping people and volunteering in my community. Becoming a Police Officer will be the ultimate way to continue my efforts to help individuals and make my community a better place for everyone to live in. My biggest motivation to pursue my law enforcement education and dream is to have the pleasure of serving the community I call home. In addition to helping my community, law enforcement is a great field for me to pursue since I enjoy encountering different situations and learning about people’s differing perspectives and feelings when I work. I would meet new types of everyday, ordinary individuals, and not just rich customers like I would encounter in a commercial or retail environment. Also, with a law enforcement education, I would learn why people act the way they do, and understand social differences which make certain people commit criminal acts. Therefore, I would be able to work on fixing those differences in the community I patrol as a Police Officer. Through a law enforcement career, I would also be working outdoors and not behind a desk all day. The freedom to move around and create new daily plans while working is much more appealing to me than following a regimented schedule that would be characteristic of a desk job in the commercial or retail industries. Another reason I chose law enforcement over other educational opportunities is because I find the investigative portion of working in law enforcement very interesting. I am a curious person and always find myself investigating things more thoroughly than most individuals. For instance, whenever I receive something new or visit a new place, I explore it to find every button and switch, and investigate what each button or switch does, and how it functions. I believe I would be very helpful to the law enforcement field since I am so interested in investigations and could help decode situations when they arise. I would truly enjoy trying to figure out what occurred during an incident and how the situation developed since I have always enjoyed working problems out to find their solutions. I am also very detail oriented and look at problems from differing perspectives, which allows me to understand problems better so I may solve them more thoroughly. Other than my investigative and social skills, I have plenty to contribute to the legal world. My most significant contribution will be showing leadership. For over fourteen years, I have continuously been in numerous leadership positions, so I am an experienced leader. For instance, I have held almost every leadership position available as a youth in my Boy Scout Troop. I held responsibilities ranging from planning menus for outings to leading my entire Troop of about sixty Boy Scouts, along with a Cub Scout Den consisting of fifteen scouts. In addition, I earned the highest honor of Eagle Scout by showing leadership through formal positions and organizing and carrying out a large scale community service project where over 520 volunteer hours were contributed. To this day, I still show leadership in the Boy Scouts of America as an Assistant Scout Master with my Troop. In this capacity, I help scouts with their requirements, mentor them on how to use their newly gained skills, and help them have fun with Scouting. With another organization I am involved with, my Venture Crew, I am currently helping plan this summer’s trip to backpack and climb Mount of the Holy Cross, a mountain in Colorado. I am serving as the fundraising chairman, where I find fundraising opportunities, introduce those opportunities at meetings, and organize the fundraisers we decide to undertake. I was also formerly the Vice President of Programs for my Venture Crew. In addition to those leadership positions, I am also the Community Service Committee Chairman with the University of Louisville Metro Rotaract Club. As the Committee Chairman, I look for community service opportunities available locally as well as in other towns, establish connections with event coordinators, think of new service projects my Rotaract Club could begin, and organize other committee members to assist me in coordinating and developing projects. Currently with my Rotaract Club, I am helping plan a box car derby to raise money for charity and a new program in which our club adopts a different non-profit organization each year. All of my involvement in these activities has developed my leadership skills extensively, which will give me an advantage when leading others in the legal world. I know how to plan and organize projects, solicit ideas to businesses and community leaders, recruit and coordinate workers, organize fundraisers, think of new and creative ideas, and many more valuable leadership skills that will be useful in the law enforcement field. Another contribution I will make to the legal world is my view of people, which is different than the views of many Police Officers in the United States. Many Police Officers think that individuals are born as hardened criminals and people refuse to change their ways, but this is not true. I believe that people can change, and that criminals are not born, they are created through society’s influences. Many individuals grow up with disadvantages compared to other individuals, whether it is a physical, social, or economical disadvantage. Those disadvantages lead people to compensate their losses by involving themselves in activities that are not always legal, but help them fit into larger society. If they can learn how to become a criminal, they would be able to re-learn how to follow the rules. As a Police Officer, I could listen to those who made mistakes by choosing to become criminal, and tell them how they could still change their ways and become normal, law-abiding citizens. In addition, I also believe that people will show you respect if you give them respect in exchange. If I take the time to show respect and listen to what people have to say, they will respect and trust me, and be more open about their situations. That quality of openness is very important in law enforcement, since it allows you to understand problems better, and create a more thorough picture of how a situation unfolded. Showing respect in law enforcement will also lead to using force less often since suspects would be more compliant and understanding. One other contribution I will make to the legal field would be helping to manage crime in my community and the United States. This is a major responsibility for all Police Officers, and I would be honored to hold such a responsibility. I would watch for crime and respond to it when it arises. I would try and help all parties affected by the crime, and help them fix their damages. I would also play an active role in preventing crime by being active in my community as a Police Officer. I would volunteer for any opportunities to work with and educate the community about staying safe, being proactive, and staying healthy and active, since healthy activity prevents crime from happening. I would love working with community leaders, children, and everyday individuals to educate them about crime prevention and the effects of crime. All of these tasks sound interesting to me, so I plan to contribute these qualities during my law enforcement career.
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