It is 9:30 a.m. on an early spring morning, and Sydney Collins ’26 sits at the far end of a long black laboratory table. She listens intently to directions from her instructor, completes some paperwork, hands it in and receives a brisk nod in response. The instructor makes his way around the rest of the classroom, checking the work of other students and offering corrections. It could be any college science lab, except that the students are all dressed in khaki and black with matching leather police duty belts.
This is Crime Scene Investigation week at the Central Shenandoah Criminal Justice Training Academy (CSCJTA) in Weyers Cave, Va., and the students here are in training to be the next cohort of law enforcement officers in the area.
Collins, a criminology major at Bridgewater College, is completing the last semester of her senior year at the CSCJTA through a partnership with BC’s Department of Sociology and Criminology. This innovative program allows select students to earn college credit while training to become a police officer.
The program is not, however, for those who like to sleep in. By 5:50 a.m. Collins is in the CSCJTA gymnasium to begin an hour of physical training—running, calisthenics, cardio, “anything to get our heart rates up”—and then a shower, snack and in formation by 7:50 a.m. to begin training.
On this particular morning, training at the CSCJTA takes place in a laboratory classroom. Students learn how to take fingerprints from objects, package evidence and map a crime scene. But earlier in the month Collins and her fellow students were practicing firing their service weapons, role playing accident investigations and learning defensive driving techniques on a closed track near Harrisonburg—all hands-on training experiences that are unique to the police academy and vital for the students to master.
Collins said that she’s been challenged throughout her time at the police academy, particularly in some of the more physical scenarios when she was up against combatants who were much larger than her. But she said she learned how to use her body more tactically and started practicing jujitsu. By March she was ranked the top female in her class for defensive tactics and had been promoted to squad leader.
“The first month was a lot, but there was no doubt that I could do it,” she said. “I learned that it isn’t about strength, but about technique. The training made me more confident in my abilities and gave me the satisfaction of knowing that, yeah, I can do this job!”
Driven to Serve
Collins grew up in Timberville, Va., and is the first in her family to attend college. She knew she wanted to attend BC after coming to campus for a tour and said the financial aid she received made that dream possible.
“The community at Bridgewater is amazing,” she said. “It felt like home, and I knew I wanted to be here.”
Collins originally planned to study psychology but switched to criminology when it became available two years ago because she knew that she wanted to go into a career in law enforcement. She has several family members who are first responders, and she also wanted to work in a field where she would “serve and help others.”
“I want to give back,” she said.
In the spring of 2024, Collins completed an internship with the City of Harrisonburg (Va.) police department. During that time, she spent two weeks in each unit to get an overview of all the various roles within an urban police department. She returned in the fall to shadow an officer working in the victim services unit. Collins said those experiences helped her understand the day-to-day life of a police officer and solidified her desire to pursue that career path.
After she was accepted, the CSCJTA reached out to several agencies in their service area and by December 2024 Collins had been hired as a police officer by the Town of Woodstock, Va. She began training with the town’s police department later that month and then began at the police academy in January.
Collins is the second student to take advantage of BC’s partnership with the CSCJTA. The first, Sam Adkins, graduated in 2024 with a B.A. in sociology and a minor in crime and justice, and now also works as a police officer for the Town of Woodstock.
Always Learning
While a position as a municipal police officer doesn’t necessarily require a college degree, Dr. Tim Brazill, Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology, said it can give graduates a leg up in understanding the nuances of their work and advancing more quickly in their careers.
Collins said she has also seen the value in having most of a college degree under her belt before beginning at the police academy. She said that her BC classes helped her with the public speaking and interpersonal communications that she must demonstrate.
“When I have to present at the academy, I’m not nervous at all. I can have difficult conversations with my colleagues. And I have the education to back up what I’m saying. It is amazing how much my Bridgewater education has helped,” she said.
Once Collins graduates from the police academy, which should happen sometime in late May, she will need to take a state test and then complete up to 240 hours of field training before she is certified as an officer in the state of Virginia. According to Andrew McNally, Executive Director of the CSCJTA, this process usually takes an additional year.
Collins doesn’t plan to stop there. She’s already been accepted into an online master’s program in criminal justice, which she plans to complete while working fulltime as a police officer.
“I’m going to just keep learning. This is a job where you keep learning until retirement,” she said.
BC’s criminology major was introduced in fall 2024 and is housed in BC’s Department of Sociology and Criminology and grew out of the 24-credit-hour crime and justice minor. According to Brazill, the criminology major can prepare graduates to enter careers in the court system, correctional facilities or victim services, as well as law enforcement. Some graduates opt for law school.
The focus of the program is to give students a deep understanding of the U.S. justice system, theories of the field and the structures and systems that impact crime, while also emphasizing the soft skills that will allow graduates to advance in their careers.
“Employers say they want graduates to be adaptive, creative and to be able to see the world from different perspectives,” Brazill said. “Training in the social sciences makes students better equipped to work with diverse populations. It makes them more aware of systemic problems in the field and more sensitive and ethical in their work.”
McNally of the CSCJTA agreed that a college degree can put graduates ahead in the interpersonal and communication skills that are needed by law enforcement officers.
“Writing and communication skills are often better from those with a college degree. Their critical thinking skills are also stronger,” he said.
– Heather Cole
5/5/26
Photo courtesy of the Central Shenandoah Criminal Justice Training Academy.