High school seniors interested in the day-to-day operations of the FBI will have a chance to earn a seat for the FBI’s 2022 Teen Academy at one of four locations in October.
The Teen Academy program gives accepted students an opportunity to get a comprehensive look into today’s FBI field agencies, but isn’t exclusive to those interested in futures in criminal justice.
The program, which is being offered in West Virginia for the second year, is meant to showcase the FBI and the types of careers that are available in the criminal justice community — whether that’s state or local law enforcement or federal law enforcement.
Whitney Barnhart, Pittsburgh FBI Community Outreach Specialist for West Virginia, said the FBI has a variety of opportunities and students might have skills the agency is looking for that they might not know match up.
Barnhart said they are interested in students who want to pursue criminal justice, “But we also want students that have interest in finance, computers, IT, languages is a big thing, accounting, economics — anybody that has a strong skill set doing a variety of things,” she said. “We have jobs that the private sector has, but inside the FBI.”
The program will also help get kids thinking ahead of time about what they need to do if they want to get one of those jobs, whether it’s going to college, internships, etc., Barnhart said.
Throughout the eight-hour day, students are provided with several presentations on topics including terrorism, cyber crime, public corruption, polygraph exams, evidence response, SWAT, and the day-to-day operations of a typical FBI field office.
Participating students also learn from special agents, intelligence analysts, language specialists, and professional staff about investigative tactics that include gathering evidence, interviewing witnesses and assisting with cases.
Barnhart said the agency partners with local law enforcement, so students are able to get to know their local agents and local police officers and how they got started in their careers.
Students will meet with real agents, have lunch with them, and participate in an “ask an agent” session where they can ask agents anything they want in a laid-back atmosphere.
Participants will also get some hands-on experiences with SWAT teams, evidence response teams, and call computer analysis response teams or CART teams, Barnhart said.
“We try to bring deployable assets that we take to the crime scenes — bring them in and put the kids through a variety of scenarios so they see the careers and occupations we talk about in the morning come to life,” she said.
The students will be able to see the types of skills needed and what is done to support real-time investigations.
Selection for the program can be competitive and those accepted will have good grades and be able to communicate in writing and in person.
In fact, as part of the application and selection process, students must submit an essay explaining why they should attend and what benefit the class will have beyond their own experience.
Interested seniors can apply to participate in the program at four locations — Martinsburg, Charleston, Huntington, or Monroeville, Pa. Programs will run from 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
Barnhart said students in our area are able to apply to all of the locations, but can only be chosen for one.
Participants will get a school excuse note to cover them for missing school for the day.
A video showing the types of activities students will experience as well as a downloadable application can be found at www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/pittsburgh/community-outreach.
The Martinsburg academy will be held Oct. 4. Applications and essays must be received by Aug. 26.
The Charleston and Huntington academies will be held Oct. 25 and Oct. 26, respectively. Applications and essays for either day must be received by Sept. 16.
The academy in Monroeville, Pa will be held Oct. 13. Applications and essays are due Sept. 2.
For more information or to submit an application email Barnhart at wnbarnhart@fbi.gov.
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