Culmination blog

My capstone hours honestly was a big motivation for me. I did my project on how to eliminate stress for police officers and how it heavily effects there home life. I did my hours by taking a class and listening to speakers for all different aspects in the law enforcement career. The key thing I'm extremely happy with the capstone project is I took full advantage of networking with people who can help me in the long run in pursuing a career I have forever dreamed of. It is to be part of a police department .

I learned different careers not only a police officer but probation officer,DEA,park rangers,investigators and etc. I am not a shy person to begin with so it was important to me that I reached out to every speaker that came into class and talked to them and ask for there contact information. My mentor works for the San Mateo county jail as a correction officer and he has always been a great hand to reach out to. Someone else who helped me was Chief Massoni for the SSFPD and he introduced me to officer within the department .

 Throughout the capstone paper I did not come across any challenges beside just the essay it's self if anything I gained so much motivation and become a lot eager to pursue a career in Law Enforcement. Many kids have complained about this project but I feel it become a great advantage for me personally. Throughout this project I met many people who I've now looked up to as my mentors. They have opened up to me if I ever need any help along my way into pursuing a career as a police officer.Now it is up to me to chase my goals and continue to reach out to all these new mentors I've found along the way because of the capstone project. It has gave me a kick in the butt to keep chasing my goals in life and not to feel people will under estimate me. Now for my over view for my capstone project is that for my presentation a created a film that will be a view of our SSFPD and go into depth of our own police department. I hope my classmates and who I will be presenting to will find my topic interesting .

Recommend books to read

My mentor took me to a seminar it was based on a book called emotional survivor for law enforcement by Kevin M.Gilmartin. It was a eight hour seminar. My mentor recommended me to read the book and it came far along to help me out in my capstone paper and in my presentation. It simply just spoke about how to eliminate stress, and activities to help u reduce stress. I found it very helpful because it was based on only Law enforcement i felt the book was ment for me lol. It was interesting how this book explained they high divorce rates and the effects on family and as well as there children. I came along to finish reading Breaking the stress cycle by Judith Sachs that talked about women stress and found great statistics .

Time for this sessions 8 hours

Total time logged: 32

Ssfpd

After shadowing Chief Massoni I felt encouraged to contact him again because he made me feel welcomed enough to reach out to him if I ever needed anything and I sure did. I called him and asked if I could be welcomed back to the station to take pictures and interview a few officer to ask them questions of how they deal with there stress while being on duty. I took a friend with me to help me capture all the images and so on. This time I had the chance to continue to meet new officers from south city and ask them also funny questions like "how would I be able to get away from a ticket?". I feel I've stepped out my comfort zone and took consideration of going back toChief Massoni and he felt glad that I went back to him for help in my capstone project. Personally I feel a sense of joy knowing I've meet new officers in ssfpd and wasn't shy to introduce myself and ask for there contact information . It motivates me a lot more to wanting to be in this field .

Time for this session: 2 hours

Total time logged : 24

San Mateo county probation

Joe Leonor works with San Mateo County Probation in the Gang Intelligence unit. My first thoughts about him was that he looked extremely intimidating, and seems he does not take no bullsh*t. I thought wrong though because what he worked with was people in gangs and was in hope to change there life around. He has been working for probation for 18 years. The over view of his talk was about what it is to be in a gang and prison gang vs street gangs. What made the class understand more is that he brought a previous gang member into class and we where able to ask him questions ourselves like what you have to do to be In a gang, what inspired him to be a different man, and what he is doing now to change his life around. I have spoke with different probation officers and it has made me consider maybe finding it as an other option beside wanting to be a police officer. It has become important to me that i look into the different fields within law enforcement .

Time logged:3
Total time logged: 22