Maryville Online Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice – Program Overview

This video provides insight about the online bachelor’s in criminal justice program at Maryville University.

Program director and assistant professor of criminal justice/criminology Geriann Brandt explores topics like:

Geriann Brandt: Welcome, and thank you very much for your interest in Maryville University. You’ve made this incredibly brave decision about pursuing your career, especially online, and your education, which is going to be so important to your future. My name is Gerriann Brandt. I am a former St. Louis County police officer here in the state of Missouri, and I am also the director of the criminal justice criminology program here.

So some of the career opportunities with this program of criminal justice criminology, aside from law enforcement is victim advocacy centers, FBI, secret service, US marshals, of course, and many, many have gone on to graduate school and to law school because it’s not just law enforcement. It is a myriad of different pathways that you can go on

Right now, especially in our society, we’re seeing a lot of spotlights and media looking at police culture, police traditions, and the citizen encounters with the community. I cannot express to you how important it is to have a very good handle on the criminal justice system before you go out into the community, whether you’re a social worker, whether you’re a police officer or whether you’re a counselor. All of this information is going to be embedded in you through these classes. You will have an incredible understanding of how the criminal justice system works, police, courts and corrections. That’s the system itself.

Maryville University’s criminal justice program is absolutely amazing, and I’ll tell you why. Every single adjunct that teaches for me or professor is either currently in the law enforcement field, the criminal justice field, or is an attorney. I want my students to see exactly what I saw as a police officer in St. Louis County Police Department. So they’ve given me this incredible luxury of developing very unique classes for you. One is criminal investigation. Another is criminal behavior, which is probably one of my favorites.

I was an adult student when I came back to Maryville, then I had one professor who I’ll never forget, Dr. Sheila Free. This professor showed me there’s so much I didn’t know that I didn’t know. And in the long run, we became friends, but she reached out to me and made me feel so important and made me feel that I really mattered. I love my students. I’m very happy to be here. I’m very blessed to have this job, and I want you to have the same experience that I did as an adult learner at Maryville University. I want to show that we do care about you.

This is where you definitely have a desire, a very strong desire to make a significant difference in your community by wearing that uniform and taking the oath that you are not above the law, but you’re going to support the law, and that was what we’re seeing right now in the media. We need officers that will support and uphold the law to its nth degree, the rule of law.

The Non-police Academy track, this is what you’re going to do with your degree. I encourage you to go onto graduate school, but you could also go, like I’ve mentioned, and go into law school, having that background of criminal law, of police procedures, of multicultural policing, and how do detectives investigate certain crimes, that is great information if you wanted to be a defense attorney or a prosecutor,

What does it mean to be brave as a criminal justice criminology student? First of all, I admire you and I applaud you because of the spotlight that is on the criminal justice system, not just the police, but the police courts and the corrections. Even if you’re not in the Police Academy track, if you’re on the Non-police Academy track, having a degree in criminal justice criminology, especially from Maryville, it’s going to take you a long way, and you’re going to have more information and more of a wider knowledge base regarding your rights as a citizen, regarding how the criminal law works, multicultural policing, juvenile delinquency. So do you have to be brave in? This particular degree, more so than any.

So as you prepare for your criminal justice education and the whole experience itself, just remember that your academic advisor’s amazing. They’re going to help you through this. You’re not going to be alone. It’s a wonderful resource to tap into. So at Maryville University, we are incredibly committed to your success. And on behalf of faculty and staff, I look forward to helping you strengthen your goals, your skills in this amazing, outstanding program that we have here. I’m very proud of it, and I hope to see you in it soon.