Jakki Thompson assistant news editor

In December, a new student organization joined K-State: the Kappa Sigma Upsilon chapter of the American Criminal Justice Association.

College is one of the biggest times in students’ lives to network with people before they enter the work force, said Ronnie Hernandez, president of ACJA and senior in criminology.

Hernandez said the creators of the organization wanted to establish a way to connect with fellow students who were passionate about the various branches of legal studies and law enforcement.

“The founders of the national organization wanted to initiate a brotherhood network with this group,” Hernandez said. “Originally, this started by just incorporating and networking with police and law enforcement. Then it was broadened to the courts and forensics. The founders wanted the connection to the brotherhood to be lifelong.”

Crystian Torres, vice president of ACJA and sophomore in criminology, said he was considering transferring to another university. While investigating possible transfer schools, he saw that some of these schools had an ACJA chapter on campus as a part of their criminology department.

Torres thought K-State would benefit from partnering with the organization.

“This is a really great networking device,” he said. “The national ACJA sponsors huge job fairs. There are also national and regional conferences that are all excellent times for students to network with professionals in their aspiring fields.”

Students who are interested in joining the organization must either be in a criminology, pre-law, or parks and conservation management degree program, or they have to have taken a course in one of these majors. Potential members should also have a strong passion for the field of criminology.

“Students who are interested in joining have to go through an interview process,” Hernandez said. “We let students in on an individual basis. It all comes down to what we as an organization can do for them and what they can do for us.”

Anne Tomlin, treasurer of ACJA and freshman in criminology, said she immediately knew the organization would benefit K-State.

“When Ronnie approached me about this opportunity, I couldn’t pass it up,” Tomlin said. “I am really passionate about what I want to do with my life, so this will be a great opportunity to make connections, network and make friends.”

Even though the group is just starting up, it is already bringing opportunities to K-State students. ACJA has already scheduled a mix of speakers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, a Kansas state judge, a Missouri state highway patrolman and a criminal justice attorney from Manhattan.

“Even though we are a new group with an already established criminology group on campus, we plan on working to get good turnouts at our events,” Hernandez said.

With a national goal of connecting college students with employers, this will be an outlet hopefully utilized by many students in the criminology departments and majors, Hernandez said.

“I want to see this group develop into something great,” Tomlin said. “I want to see it be built from the ground up. I want to say that I was a part of this since the very beginning.”

Meetings are every Wednesday in the K-State Student Union, usually around 6 p.m.

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