BLUEFIELD COLLEGE PRESIDENT DAVID OLIVE (LEFT) PRESENTS CRIMINAL JUSTICE MAJOR MIKE MAWDSLEY HIS DIPLOMA, WHICH HE EARNED THROUGH CLASSROOM STUDIES AND POLICE ACADEMY TRAINING.
December 2016 graduate Mike Mawdsley of Culpeper, Virginia, is a prime example of the Bluefield College criminal justice way. Mawdsley completed not only his required studies for a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, but also the Southwest Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy even before he received his diploma from BC.
“My experience at the academy helped prepare me for my career,” said Mawdsley said, who served as a part-time campus security officer at BC and played for the Rams football team where he earned All-Academic honors. “All the training we did was based on different case laws that have come over the years. Now that I’ve graduated, I am an officer who has the most up to date training.”
Mawdsley completed 19 weeks of training at the academy where he said he learned valuable and practical information and skills, including basic CPR, common laws and defensive tactics for firearms, and how to handle active shooter situations in buildings and in other compromising locations.
“He has such deep and genuine passion for a law enforcement career and is dedicated to preparing himself physically and intellectually to be the best public servant he can be,” said Dr. Kim Farmer, professor and chair of the BC Department of Criminal Justice. “He was an excellent and delightful student, and I am so very proud of all that he has accomplished at Bluefield College and at the police academy.”
Mawdsley hopes to eventually work at a local police or sheriff’s department where he will be able to be promoted. His ultimate goal is to work in Fairfax, Virginia, and eventually run for Culpeper County Sheriff.
“He is definitely one of the finest young men I have ever met, not only in my capacity as a professor, but in general,” added Dr. Farmer. “He is the model for the future of policing, possessing all of the skills needed for maintaining the perfect balance between serving and policing a community.”
Mawdsley spoke equally highly of Dr. Farmer and colleague Dr. Kelly Walls, associate professor of criminal justice.
“Bluefield College helped me accomplish my dreams,” he said, “by taking criminal justice classes with the two best criminal justice professors out there: Dr. Farmer and Dr. Walls.”