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I am a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Criminology student with a concentration in Community and Institutional Practice at Ïã¸ÛÁùºÐ±¦µä¿ª½±½á¹û. For my practicum experience, I had the pleasure of being a part of the Collingwood Neighbourhood House.Ìý

The Collingwood Neighbourhood House is a non-profit organization that provides a variety of different programs to youths in hopes to improve the Collingwood area of Vancouver. The organization teaches valuable skills to help the youths advance in life and ultimately prevent delinquency. During my practicum experience, I learned the importance of commitment and providing leadership. My practicum experience revealed to me the significance of organizations such as the Collingwood Neighbourhood House, especially in creating a safe space for youths. I am very appreciative that I had the privilege of being able to do my practicum experience with an organization that has the goal of keeping its community protected together.

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I recently completed my Bachelor of Arts in Applied Criminology with a concentration in Crime Analysis and Prevention. My career plans have always been focused toward pursuing a career in some aspect of law enforcement. Since I had already been volunteering with a police department at one of their community police offices, I wanted to gain experience in a different area within law enforcement.

Practicum Coordinator Dr. Andrew Reid placed me with the Tsawwassen First Nation Compliance and Enforcement team who are located on Tsawwassen First Nation Land and are responsible for ensuring the laws, regulations and policies are being followed. During my time with the TFN Compliance and Enforcement team, I had the opportunity to gain lots of experience conducting patrols with one of the peace officers in a marked vehicle. During these patrols I gained experience writing written tickets such as parking tickets, speaking to businesses located on TFN land whose business licenses had expired and responding to various complaints made by members of the community. I also developed important skills such as law enforcement note taking and report writing. Since the TFN Compliance and Enforcement team works closely with the Delta Police Department, I also had opportunities to assist in conducting speed enforcements with both the Peace Officer and Police Officer present.
I am grateful for the opportunity to complete my practicum with the Tsawwassen First Nation Compliance and Enforcement team. I feel as though the knowledge and practical skills I have gained from my experience have both confirmed my desire to pursue a career in law enforcement, and better prepared me for my future.

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My name is Lily, and I am in my 4th year of Criminology here at Ïã¸ÛÁùºÐ±¦µä¿ª½±½á¹û. I am in policing and community concentration and am looking toward a career in law enforcement. Fulfilling my practicum experience was what I was most looking forward to in my degree, as it gives students like myself an opportunity to work in the real world.

I was placed with the Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers at the Vancouver Police Department headquarters in Burnaby. Crime stoppers works as the middleman between the community and the police. It gives people the opportunity to send in tips anonymously about crime in their communities. My role was an Outreach Ambassador. My duties included representing Crime Stoppers at various festivals, gathering information from tipsters, and performing harm reduction presentations at local schools across the lower mainland. These presentations gave valuable information to grade 8’s and 10’s about various subjects such as drug safety, bullying and gang life. With the use of videos, trivia and real-life case studies, students were allowed to learn hard subjects in a safe environment.
Working within the VPD, networking with various lower mainland police departments and high schools, I felt like I was making a difference in my community and set me up for how exciting my future career as a police officer will be. Ïã¸ÛÁùºÐ±¦µä¿ª½±½á¹û has been the backbone in who I am today and who I will be in the future.

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Going into my practicum experience and my final year at Ïã¸ÛÁùºÐ±¦µä¿ª½±½á¹û, I was not too sure of what I wanted to do after I completed my degree in Criminology. I was hoping that my practicum experience would help me figure out an area I would be interested in. I got placed at the Vancouver Parole Office to shadow two parole officers and their day-to-day duties.

On a typical day, I would accompany them on their supervision meetings to meet with offenders. During my time at VPO, I learned how to write casework record reports, write correctional plans, and present cases at weekly meetings to screen offenders for community residential facilities. I got to network with a lot of people in the world of parole which is beneficial for me because I am interested in pursuing a career in parole. Overall, I completed 250 hours for my practicum experience, and I felt that is very useful because I feel like I got a full understanding of what being a parole officer entails. During my practicum, it confirmed my career aspirations as going into my practicum this line of work was something I was interested in but I was not sure if it something I would pursue.
Learning over the past couple months during my practicum has helped me confirm my aspirations and I feel like I would enjoy working as a parole officer. I feel like any practicum experience has major importance for your education because it gives you real first-hand experience and that is something completely different from what you learn in the classroom.

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