Student Achievements
Criminal Justice Graduate Supports Returning Citizens through Kent County Parole Office
November 16, 2018
Christina Ledezma, a School of Criminal Justice graduate, is now serving as a Resource Navigator Aide for Alternative Directions within the Kent County Parole Office. She graduated this past spring with a Master of Science in Criminal Justice from GVSU.
In this position, Christina helps provide returning citizens the resources they need to become self-sufficient as they reintegrate back into the community from prison. These resources can be anything from bus passes to hygiene essentials to housing and employment opportunities. She enthusiastically describes her job saying, “It’s exciting and worthwhile to work both directly with those I’m helping and those who have the same goals as my organization.”
As a Resource Navigation Aide, she is always trying to gain a better understanding of what it is she is aiming to achieve both on a micro-level and macro-level within the criminal justice system. Christina credits her graduate program for helping her become a critical thinker, as the skills and knowledge she learned during her program extended beyond the classroom. She recalls the night of her first Criminology class, “It was utterly new as one of my first classes ever in [graduate school] and ultimately one of my favorites. That night, I was captivated, compelled and hooked on everything: my professor’s passion, my peers’ interjections, and Criminology.”
During her time at GVSU, Christina was the recipient of the Graduate Dean’s Citation Award for Outstanding Thesis Award for her thesis, Cold Careers and Occupational Hazards: Canadian Serial Killers and their Occupational Preferences. While she is thankful there isn’t a direct connection between her thesis subject and current job, she notes that the experience she gained in conducting research was invaluable. She is constantly looking for new resources that will better help returning citizens, and has found “regardless the topic, knowing which sources to trust and which sources are best is a valuable skill.”
Christina looks forward to continuing to provide support for those reentering society, “What I find most rewarding about my career is that it is one of second chances.” Congratulations to Christina on all her success!