Alvarez: “… the most rewarding profession …”
LOCH SHELDRAKE – Sullivan BOCES and SUNY Sullivan held a ribbon cutting on Wednesday for the Career & Technical Education Public Safety classrooms at the college. This partnership will provide more comprehensive programming for the young men and women of the county.
SUNY Sullivan President Jay Quaintance welcomed educators, students and local politicians including County Legislature Chairman Luis Alvarez, who spent a career in law enforcement.
“It is honorable, the most rewarding professions you are getting into,” Alvarez said. “People will recognize you. People will know you. People will trust you. The only thing I found hard in a police officer is your entire life is flipped upside down. Not as easy as you may think it is. You’re the one who’s going to rescue everybody out there. Who is going to rescue you?”
Public Safety student Destiny Nash, a senior, at Monticello High School, is ready for the challenge.
“Being at SUNY Sullivan gives us firsthand knowledge of the criminal justice college experience,” Nash said. “Speaking with college students makes us more excited to continue our education and enter the criminal justice field. This dialog gets us excited to study the career field we have been preparing for these past few years. The combination of our classwork and this knowledge will make us well prepared criminal justice college students that are ready to take on any challenge they are given.”
Sullivan BOCES Board President Linda Berkowicz said this partnership is just the beginning with others in various fields to follow.
Instructor Dennis Barnett, a former Montgomery police sergeant, introduces his student cadets
