Forrest Center Students Complete 2022 Internship Program with St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office

May 14, 2022

Cpl. William Rishel, K-9 Storm and Forrest Center student interns

The second-year Criminal Justice students from the Dr. James A. Forrest Career and Technology Center completed their 2022 internship program with the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office on May 4, 2022. This year’s session marked the return of the internship program for the first time since 2019 because of COVID-19 restrictions in place during the 2020 and 2021 school years.

Twenty three students interned twice a week over a six-week period, working at Sheriff’s Office Headquarters, the Detention and Rehabilitation Center, the District III Station, the Circuit Courthouse, and as special guests of the St. Mary’s County Department of Emergency Services.

The internships culminated with a trip to the K-9 Training Center to meet K-9 officers and learned about their duties through demonstrations and questions and answers. The students were allowed to interact with the non-patrol dogs. The students also met some members of the Emergency Services Team and learned about the duties and functions of the team, as well as seeing a static display of the agency’s EST equipment.

After enjoying a lunch of pizza donated by Chief’s in Tall Timbers, the students were presented Sheriff’s Salute certificates in recognition of their participation in the internship program, and for their completion of two years of study of Criminal Justice at the Forrest Center.

As he has since the inception of the internship program 15 years ago, Captain Steven Hall both welcomed the students to their internship at their orientation in March and provided parting words to the students after presenting them with their certificates at their culminating event.