Tai’lon Jackson is a senior completing his degree in Criminal Justice and hopes to become a special investigator of human trafficking crimes with the FBI. He is currently interning in the Investigative Division of the Office of Police Complaints and has a job offer from CSRA as a Background Investigator.
What is your major and how did you decide to pursue it?
My major is criminal justice and I decided to pursue this in order to become a police psychologist because I wanted a career that would affect police officers and improve the methods used to put them in uniform. As I got deeper in I realized that it wasn’t the psychologist who were doing their job wrong but the system itself which didn’t require psychological evaluations of police officers. So, with the massive task of reforming entire police systems, I decided to instead focus on a more local issue for criminal justice. Upon doing more research I discovered that DC is a hub for human trafficking and child sex trafficking. To me these are the most heinous crimes that can be committed by an individual and it’s happening in my backyard. The only organization that investigates this domestically is the FBI, so now I’m studying criminal justice in order to become a special investigator of human trafficking crimes with the FBI.
Do you currently intern or work, and how does it fit in with your career goals?
I intern at the Office of Police Complaints in the investigative division. This fits directly into my future goals. My supervisor is teaching me how to be an investigator, how to conduct investigations, the nuances of the criminal justice system with independent investigation agencies, and generally what it means to seek justice. So, this job is perfect for the skills that I want to develop and will be the true foundation for my investigative career.
What strategies have proven most helpful in making the most of your time at GWU?
Using the Career services center at GW was crucial because they put me in contact with people that I would have never been able to meet. They also helped me narrow down the agencies that I want a career with and assisted in writing my resume and cover letter for these agencies. Also, my academic in advisor within my department (Sociology) was extremely helpful, much more so than the CCAS advisors who almost made it impossible for me to graduate on time by telling me to take nonsense classes. Also, the peer network at GW was very useful when I was able to establish it.
What was the biggest challenge you faced in college and how did you overcome it?
The biggest challenge I faced was freshman year. I was an engineer, taking overload amount of credits, involved in 4 organizations, and an undergraduate research assistantship. On the very first day of school the woman who mentored me on Trombone died and I rushed to the hospital but by the time I got there, she was already gone. Unfortunately, I would go on to experience a comparable situation three more times throughout freshman year. A few weeks later my grandfather died, a month or so after that my uncle died, and then once spring semester started my cousin was killed. All the while my mother was in and out of the hospital because of her Rheumatoid arthritis which caused her excruciating pain on a daily basis.
This was probably the darkest point in my life and when I think back on it, the only color that comes to mind is gray. It feels like gray was the only color I could see at the time. Of course, my grades suffered as well. My GPA hit an all-time low of 1.7 and I was on the verge of dropping out. I didn’t believe in myself, I felt like everyone and everything was against me. Over the summer however, I was reminded as to why I have to succeed and through love and encouragement from my family, I decided to continue at GWU and every semester since then I have gotten above a 3.5 GPA and now my overall is up to 3.1. It wasn’t easy and sad things continued to happen along the way but the way I handle them changed, as a result I became stronger and more resilient. I truly feel as if I can conquer anything now and it’s because I was able to struggle through those moments that broke me down and use them to make me stronger.
How have you changed since your freshman year?
I expected to be changed by the end of my four years, but I assumed the change would mostly be a giant increase in knowledge from academic courses. However, the changes from freshman year until now were almost exclusively personal. The biggest difference between freshman year and now is my attitude towards problems or tough times and my increased confidence. Before, I would sulk, I would talk down about myself, view the world pessimistically, claiming that the world is simply a bad place. Now I face every problem head on and with a smile (literally). The smile doesn’t mean I’m happy, rather it means that I’m ready for what comes because eventually everything will pass. Smiling in the worst of times is also great for those around. People usually feel two ways about a person smiling at danger. Either they are crazy, or they are confident in what they are doing. I might not be either of those or a little bit of both but if I’ve learned anything in these four years, it’s that when the “chips are down” and it looks like there’s no way out, one’s ability to stand firm through tribulation will always see them out of the tunnel and into the light. I try to treat life like a piano. The white keys represent happiness and the black keys represent sadness, and as I go through life I remember that the black keys make music too.
What role has the SJT scholars program played in your college career?
Without SJT, I don’t think I would have a college career. The offer I received from GW was the only one of its kind for me. No other school awarded me a scholarship and I wouldn’t be able to take out loans either. The opportunity presented to me through the SJT scholarship is one of a kind and without it I can’t even definitively say that I would be graduating from college this year.
What was your favorite memory with the SJT scholars program?
The SJT potlucks were my favorite memories. We don’t often get honored for how hard we work after we get into school unless we are number one all the time, but the potlucks allowed us to partake in fellowship and take pride in all that we had accomplished that semester.
How are you preparing for graduation and what are your plans afterwards?
I have started looking for apartments in the area and started saving so I can put a deposit down by May. I have received a job offer to work as a government Background Investigator with CSRA for the Office of Personnel Management. I will be starting that job around May or June. As for school, I plan on applying to graduate school and starting classes in Spring 2019. My goal is to earn a doctorate (in Geology or Oceanography) eventually so that I can also pursue my personal goals of research, exploration, and mapping of the worlds’ oceans.