Desiree Holt

Desiree Holt did three ride-alongs before she'd finished her second year — one with patrol, one with a K-9 unit, and one, almost by accident, with a probation officer covering a colleague's caseload for a day. "That third one was the one that actually stuck. Patrol is the job everyone pictures when you say criminal justice. Nobody pictures probation, and it's the job where you actually watch somebody's life change or not change, slowly, over years."

She's now a probation and parole officer carrying a caseload of around fifty, and says the program's ride-along requirement is undersold on campus tours. "Nobody should pick a specialty in this field off a class description. You have to be in the car, or in the office, to know if it's actually you. Porter made sure I did that before I'd committed to anything."