Southwestern Michigan College criminal justice students swept SkillsUSA’s State Leadership and Skills Conference in Grand Rapids for the third straight year earlier this month.

SMC’s state-champion Crime Scene Investigation team consisted of Nyisha Savado, of Michigan City, Skuyler Donaldson, of Osceola, and Ariel Schwemer, of Burr Oak.

Criminal justice gold medalist Joseph Seidler is from St. Joseph. SMC also sent the other two medalists, Dustin Cochran, from Niles (silver), and Andrea Hamlett, from Colorado (bronze). All six were new to state competition.

“Silver and bronze were within a tenth of a point,” said Criminal Justice Club President Joseph Herrera, of Holland, 2016’s gold medalist. “It could have gone either way. Dustin and Andy are very good at what they do — Joe, too — and they’re on par with each other.”

Seidler, Cochran, Hamlett, Herrera and Program Director Donald Ricker appeared before Dowagiac Rotary Club April 13 at Elks Lodge 889.

“I’m very grateful for what officers like Jarrid Bradford, Jeff Brown and Jim Kusa have done for the club and for me,” Herrera said. “I feel very confident next year I might be able to apply to the Michigan State Police, which will be a stepping stone to where I really want to get — the DEA at the federal level.”

“We’ve been blessed to have the cooperation of the local law-enforcement community, as well as the prosecutor,” who put “CJ” to work in 2016 on “Seeking Justice,” helping resolve cold-case homicides, Ricker said.

The first case SMC contributed to, a 1977 Edwardsburg shooting death originally ruled a suicide, is preparing to go to trial with the victim’s cousin as defendant.

“This is a critical program for our community,” Cass County Prosecutor Victor Fitz said. “Law enforcement has unfairly taken a tremendous hit. There are unethical pastors, teachers, prosecutors, right down the line. No group is perfect, including police officers. Impropriety should be addressed, but in a country of 300 million isolated incidents unfairly pilloried police officers, so we’re seeing the number of people going into law enforcement to protect us decrease dramatically. Young men and women like this deserve high accolades for what they’re doing.”

“Our students who have competed come back and provide assistance to new students,” Ricker said. “We’ve had students hired at Cook Nuclear Plant in security. I’ve got two or three who may be going to the June academy for the Michigan State Police. Another student was hired by Elkhart County Sheriff’s work-release program.”

Two members of SMC’s 2016 CSI team, Abbigale Tharp and Tyler Fye, help mentor.

“I was glad to hear they thought the scenarios were easier than our training,” said Ricker, a Bay City native and 10-year Houston police officer who became SMC’s program director in 2014. “I’m so proud of these young people and all of the hard work and dedication they demonstrate.”

CSI teams collect evidence, sketch their assigned scene and write a report. That total, combined with a written test, make up their final score.

Criminal justice involves individual competition around five scenarios, such as a 911 hang-up, a traffic stop, a misdemeanor arrest and a victim-witness interview.

Seidler found a simulated pre-employment interview most challenging.

“It was like a job interview with a chief of police who might hire you. That was the second job interview I’ve ever had — and he asked different questions than what I’ve ever been asked before. Our scenarios didn’t have time limits,” said Seidler, who’d like to be a homicide detective or SWAT team member, eventually becoming a deputy U.S. marshal. “You just do what you need until you’re done.”

“We had to bring resumes,” added Cochran, also interested in becoming a homicide detective.

The undecided Hamlett moved to Detroit four years ago from Denver.

Donaldson, who aspires to be a forensic scientist, said she and Schwemer (juvenile probation) and Savado (FBI agent), were confronted with a breaking-and-entering scene.

“There were four chairs with a magazine draped across the back of one,” Donaldson said. “There was a pill near a window and a wine glass knocked down on the floor. There was a piece of candy on the right side of the room and a syringe in front. And a random piece of tape seven feet up on the wall.

“There was a note in the magazine we did not find because we didn’t search through the magazine. There was a quarter underneath a chair we did not see because we didn’t touch the chairs. It was visible, but also looked like part of the chair. They want to see how your observing skills are. We got 30 minutes to process the scene and 30 minutes for paperwork.”

Southwestern Michigan College is a public, residential and commuter, community college, founded in 1964. The college averages in the top 10 percent nationally for student academic success based upon the National Community College Benchmark Project. Southwestern Michigan College strives to be the college of first choice, to provide the programs and services to meet the needs of students, and to serve our community. The college is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and is a member of the American Association of Community Colleges.