NPRC’s Criminal Justice program continues to develop in a positive direction. Like many traditional criminal justice programs in higher education, NPRC offers a well-rounded classroom experience. This allows students to learn about the processes of the criminal justice system and the variety of careers that exist in the industry. However, NPRC is also incorporating industry credential achievement, differentiating from traditional programs.
NPRC offers extensive coursework that features traditional lectures and an applied curriculum. Recently, our criminal law and criminal procedure course split into individual courses to provide the most thorough learning experience in each of these subject areas. The criminal law course now has an extensive final project involving criminal elements and the charging of a suspect. Students followed the steps involved in investigation and wrote an incident report, filed for a search warrant, and presented their findings and procedure to a panel of highly qualified professionals that included a judge of common pleas, a magisterial judge, and a district attorney.
The College now also has a pathway for students to complete a practicum experience for credit – an experience that includes a minimum of 60 hours of fieldwork to help them gain experience and insight into what a specific career or role looks like. Practicum experience can be completed in areas such as administrative work, the court system, and dispatching, to name a few. In addition to these field experiences, criminal justice professionals are featured as guest speakers in various courses to answer students’ questions and share their experience from working in this industry. This first-hand experience helps students to meet professionals they may find as mentors and can help reinforce that this is the correct career trajectory for them.
“We are one of the few institutions who is focused on this applied and scenario-based learning in our criminal justice program that is not a law school or a police academy,” notes Instructor of Criminal Justice, Dave Wilson. “These projects and opportunities are great indicators of judging how well our students are really grasping the material. I think our program is going to be a leader simply because we are not holding to all the traditions of other criminal justice programs. We are adding activities to hold our program to a high standard and hope that our program is one that others will eventually try to be like in their curriculum.”
The criminal justice program also now has more defined pathways and a specialization in public safety. Individuals interested in public safety careers like law enforcement can now leave NPRC with industry-recognized credentials in baton and pepper spray training. These industry-recognized credentials will allow students to go into the next stage of their career and education with a solid foundation to set them up for success. In addition to this, students who are coming to NPRC from a police academy, as a trained firefighter, or an experienced emergency medical services professional can have credits from their career transferred to assist them as they complete their degree.
“We value our student’s life experiences,” said Wilson. “If students come to us after time at the police academy, after receiving firefighter training, or even working in emergency medical services, we take that experience and knowledge into consideration and can award them credit for their work.”
For more information about NPRC’s academic programs, visit the College’s website.
NPRC acknowledges that the information contained in this content is complete and accurate at time of publication. It is descriptive in nature and the college reserves the right to make any adjustments it deems necessary or desirable. Updates to programs, tuition, or other academic-related items will be reflected in the online College Catalog or on the respective College web pages. Questions regarding accuracy of content may be emailed to marketing@rrcnpa.org.