Time Well Spent

I am very honored to have participated in the Early Childhood Program because I learned so much throughout the 2 years that I have spent with my professors and peers. Here are the three things I have learned:

             1.     Never put a child or a family in a stereotype nor become bias. As an African-American woman, I have had the experience of going through that and I have learned to not put others in categories because it can be offensive. Never put others in a box due to ignorance.

             2.     Just because a child misbehaves at school, does not mean that they are bad children in general. You will never know what children or people are going through behind closed doors. The child’s family may not have the resources that they need to allow the child to be successful in school such as food or transportation to attend PTA meetings. Find the reason behind a child’s behavior.

             3.     There are so many organizations and opportunities out there for early childhood professionals and parents to get the most out of their early childhood experience. There are so many resources out there that can help us further in what we are lacking in our own situation such as parenting resources or professional workshops to help others. I am thankful for being exposed to these different organizations.

       My long term goal is to become a child and family advocate. I will work my hardest to gain more experience through volunteer opportunities and to get training within this field. I want to take all that I have learned throughout this program and to use it as an advantage to better myself and provide excellent service to children and families. Thank you so much to my professor and my peers for being a great encouragement and for enlightening me on things that I didn’t know myself. I learned so much from you all. God bless you all and good luck on your future journey!

 

If anyone would like to keep in contact:

Email Address: angelboone6@gmail.com

* I would give my phone number but if you would like that, I can email that information to you*

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally

The three organizations that I chose were Save the Children, UNICEF, and UNESCO. Save Our Children is an organization that protects children around the world in any crisis. They hope to provide children with a healthy start, to transform their lives, and changing the course of their future. The UNICEF organization works to attain sustainable development goals in various partnerships with people to help children and families. UNESCO organization’s goals are almost the same as UNICEF, they work to protect those in human rights, mutual respect, and poverty alleviation. I like these three organizations because they work hard to ensure that the families are trained and helped well enough to sustain their own lives and work to protect children.

Job Titles

                 1)      Family Service Coordinator- Provides support services for Head Start families, assisting parents in learning and using community resources, work with parents on goal-setting, and encouraging parent involvement in their child’s education. The person must have an associate degree in Social Work or related Family/Human Service field. Strong interpersonal, communication, and organizational skills. Knowledge of the basics of working with preschool children. Keep information on children confidential. (Save the Children)

                2)      Child Protection Specialist- Supports the development and preparation of the Child Protection programs/projects. Must have an advanced university degree in international development, human rights, psychology, international law, and other social science fields. 5 years of professional experience in social development planning and management in child protection and other related areas at the international level. Experience in supporting policy dialogue and development and writing advocacy briefs and policy. Fluency in English. (UNICEF)

                3)      Child Protection Consultant- Assist the Child Protection program in development and finalization Program Strategy Note and Theory of Change through a consultative process of engagement with key stakeholders. You must have an advanced degree in social sciences, law, social work, or a related field. Demonstrated experience in producing high quality documents in areas of child protection, law, and social welfare systems. Excellent writing and speaking skills in English, ability to work up under pressure and with limited time frames. Knowledge of Rights of the Child and Child Protection principles. (UNICEF)

References

Children, S. t. (2016). Save the Children Jobs. Retrieved from Save the Children: http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6226565/k.5717/Save_the_Children_Jobs.htm

UNESCO. (2016). About Us: Introducing UNESCO. Retrieved from UNESCO: http://en.unesco.org/about-us/introducing-unesco

UNICEF. (2016). Employment at UNICEF. Retrieved from UNICEF: 70 Years for Every Child: http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: National/Federal Level

The three national/federal organizations that appeal to me are Child Welfare Information Gateway, Foster Kinship, and the Children’s Defense Fund. Child Welfare Information Gateway is a website that caters to those who are grandparents and other relatives for children. This website has a few resources that help grandparents and kinship families to understand the child welfare system, how it works and the services they receive, and steps on how to parent a child that child in extreme cases. The Foster Kinship website works to empower kinship caregivers and builds their capability to provide the safest, most stable, and permanent placements for children in their care. Kinship also has a family advocacy and Case Management program, support groups, and kinship family events. The last organization that I came across was the Children’s Defense Fund. CDF has a Kinship navigator program that helps the grandparents or other relative caregivers to understand the ins and outs of the child welfare system. They also have information about early child care and education programs for the families and children.

Some of the jobs that appeal to me are a college professor that require you to have the skills of advance education in child development and age-appropriate programming strong analytical skills, and the ability to communicate clearly. College professors also have a Ph.D or Ed.D. Another job that I saw interesting was a government official. The government official has a knowledge of a topic area, good writing, ability to work with others, and great communication skills. In these positions, people are held responsible for the well-being of children and families. According to what position you may have, a minimum of an associate’s degree and experience is a must. Working for the government involves placement from a civil service exam. The third job that I am interested in is an early intervention specialist. Early interventionist must have 3 hours of college credit in early childhood special education or Early Childhood development.

References

Family, F. K. (2016). Kinship Resource Center. Retrieved from Foster Kinship: Help Keep Home in the Family: http://www.fosterkinship.org/programs/kinshipnavigator/

Fund, C. D. (2016). Kinship Families. Retrieved from Childrens Defense Fund: http://www.childrensdefense.org/policy/welfare/

Gateway, C. W. (2016). Kinship Caregivers and the Child Welfare System. Retrieved from Child Welfare Information Gateway: https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f-kinshi/

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

3 Early Childhood organizations in North Carolina

         1.      The Carousel Center for Abused children. This is a center is a non-profit organization in my area that provides a child-friendly environment for abused and neglected children. They also support child abuse prevention efforts in the southeastern parts of North Carolina.

         2.      Child and Family Services is a place that improves the lives of children through a partnership of community resources that promotes strong families and advocates for change.

         3.      Smart Start is an organization that is similar to Head Start. They have a common concern for and commitment to the welfare and success of children between the ages of birth to 5 years old. They also fund services in the areas of health, family support, and early childhood care and education.

         The three types of jobs that I am interested in are a family advocate/family support specialist, Kindergarten teacher, and a Developmental specialist in pediatric development. A family advocate or a family support specialist has to have a bachelor’s degree in psychology, counseling, social work, or child development. Three years of at least experience in child abuse, excellent verbal and written communication skills, understand the dynamics of child abuse, legal and child welfare system. You also have to collaborate and interact well with team members from various disciplines such as law enforcement, medical, mental, Child Protective Services, and prosecutors. To be a kindergarten teacher in North Carolina you have to have a Bachelor’s or master’s degree in elementary education and also a license a birth-kindergarten license. To be a developmental specialist, you have to have a bachelor’s degree in Birth-Kindergarten education, early childhood special education, Child development, family studies, etc. Must have two years of experience on early intervention developmental specialist. They also must be eligible for Infant Toddler Family Specialist certification.

References

Center, C. &. (2016). Home. Retrieved from Children and Family Services Center: http://www.childrenfamily.org/#

Center, T. C. (2016). Home. Retrieved from The Carousel Center: http://carouselcenter.org/

Hospital, B. C. (2016). Job Description. Retrieved from Oracle: https://psappprd1.is.wfubmc.edu:8022/psp/eppro/EMPLOYEE/B_NAV_HR/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL?HRS_PERSON_ID=0&PAGE=HRS_CE_JOB_DTL&Action=A&JobOpeningId=18084&SiteId=1

Indeed. (2016). Family Advocate. Retrieved from Grayson County Children's Advocacy Center: http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Grayson-County-Children's-Advocacy-Center/jobs/Family-Advocate-efc4229d1667a077?q=Child+Advocate

Start, S. (2016). What is Smart Start. Retrieved from New Hanover County Smart Start: http://www.newhanoverkids.org/about/what-is-smart-start/

Profile of a Volunteer

      A couple of years ago I volunteered as a mentor of a one week program called Safety Town back in 2006. It was sponsored by the Greensboro Police Department. I was 16 and my brother was the one who signed me up for it because he worked for the department and wanted to put me in something meaningful for the summer. During the program they had children to learn about safety and the many jobs that help to keep people safe. The EMT and fire department came to greet the children and teach the importance of safety. Afterwards we went over what they learned and play on a hand built town where they rode tricycles as if they were riding through a town with streetlights, roads, and buildings the kids sizes. I gained some leadership skills from doing this program. I learned how to manage children for the first time and to build positive relationships with the children. I was so good at the volunteer work that the children wanted me to babysit them. I finally saw my love for children and decided to continue to find a career in not only working with children but to be able to advocate for them when no one else will.

Using Social Media

Some of my favorite social media tools are Facebook and YouTube. I do read blogs but that is very rare these days unless I find something that catches my attention. These days everyone has a Facebook page and through this social media, people are able to voice their opinions and to post videos on things that interest them. Advocacy work is important when it comes to Facebook because you can put whatever issue that you feel is relevant to you. Other people can then see your page and comment on your concerns. Facebook allows you to reach out to thousands of people and through that, you are able to make petitions and more quickly reach elected officials who more than likely have a page of their own. I have had experiences where the school that I attended as an undergrad was on the verge of closing. So on our school Facebook page, a petition was put out to save our school. It was pretty awesome and we managed to save it through that and other advocacy tools. YouTube is also a great advocacy tool because you can make videos and advertise the issues that are going on in early childhood. With YouTube you can also reach millions of people through your advertisements. I remember the Kony 2012 video and how that went viral really quickly and reached millions of people about human rights in Uganda. Blogs and newsletters are great as well to advocate because of the many stories and experiences that people tell on the issues that they discuss. All of these tools are very good when advocating. I will be sure to use all of them to reach out to more people on the issues of early childhood.

Advocacy Through Advertisement

March of Dimes has been advertising for years about the issues of premature babies. March of Dimes fights premature birth and uses research to find answers to the various questions about this issue.  March of Dimes works with the local communities and has global programs that helps to support babies everywhere. Every year, especially in the month of March there are activities that people have locally to help raise money to support the research and advocacy of this organization. March of Dimes also has televised advertisement that helps to reach more people. As much advertising this organization does, they are able to reach millions of people around the work to help advocate for premature births.

Another advertisement campaigns that stood out to me are autism awareness and childhood asthma. The autism awareness topic teaches us to become more aware of autism and the results of autism research. It teaches us that early detection and intervention can give great improvements over a lifetime. Low diagnosis among low income families, as well as African American and Hispanics is higher than the general public. There has been a 30 percent increase in the past two years regarding the increase of autism in children. The Ad council encourages children of young children to visit the Autism Speaks website and to learn about the various ways to help their child with this condition. Advertisment in this advocacy uses celebrities with children with autism to tell people about their own personal experience and to tell about the importance of early detection and intervention.                                                                     

References

Council, A. (2016). Autism Awareness. Retrieved from Ad Council: Inspiring Change, Improving Lives: http://www.adcouncil.org/Our-Campaigns/Health/Autism-Awareness

Dimes, M. o. (2016). Retrieved from March of Dimes: A Fighting Chance For Every Baby: http://www.marchofdimes.org/index.aspx

My Own Capacity

         The issues that impact children and their families in the field of early childhood education that I am most passionate about are early intervention, developmental issues, and malnutrition. In order to be a great advocate for these issues are to work together as a team, networking with different people to get your voices and opinions across, and to persevere and never give up on your goals of solving your issues. In order for me to become a more effective advocate is to be a better communicator because of me being an introverted person. That is my biggest problem today and it is what is most effective of being an advocate. If I don’t communicate and network with other people in the community and with my advocacy team then I would not be able to progress in accomplish our goals. So I want to be able to grow in being more open to communication and to practice public speaking skills to be a better advocate.

My Role as an Advocate

         My motivation in advocating for very young children is my background story of my very own childhood. I was born premature but I grew up to become a healthy young lady ready to take on the world. I wanted to be an encouragement to other families out there who are going through the same issue as my parents with premature children even despite having developmental issues and delays as well. I believe that at the macro level of advocacy, you can reach so many people at the local level and get together to think of great solutions. That way once you put all of your ideas together then you can upgrade those ideas and concerns to those at the national level where all the policy takes place. To be a community leader in childhood issues you have to be willing to have a passion and to be able to work with all sorts of people. You also have to be consistent in your work and never back down. Funding and networking is so important when it comes to the resources in state leadership. Networking helps to keep in touch with programs all across the state. In order to mobilize people, I focus on the issues going on in early childhood today. We have a few newsletters that come in at work every now and then and I read them to get the heads up. The advice I would give to someone interested in leadership role and advocating for young children and families are to have a lot of passion, drive, and determination to do all you can for them. Being a teacher has its challenges but I would encourage those interested to keep their head up and keep the motivation to lend a hand for children and families. 



                                                                        Reference
                                                                             
                   Zero to Three Policy Center. (2008). Advocacy strategies to improve outcomes for very                                      young children: Interviews with leaders at the state and community levels. Retrieved from
                        http://main.zerotothree.org/site/DocServer/AdvocacyLeaders_final.pdf?docID=1882 

Personal Advocacy

            The person that I admire their personal acts of advocacy is my one of my professors from ECSU. I admire her because of her ability to stand up for what she believes in and her ability to stand strong for our school. The school I attended as an undergrad is historically black college. For years, there have been people who have tried to take down our school and to get rid of it. The person that I admire Dr. Coulson-Clark is one of my Political Science professors and has had much experience in the political world. To keep our school afloat, she has done much grant writing , is the head of the Global Leadership Academy, and is now apart of several other committees at my alumni school. Dr. CC has worked in D.C at the Department of State and because of her background and experience, she is able to better provide support for our school. Dr. CC has done so much as a professor, friend, and colleague for many people as well as myself. She was hard on me as a student but I knew deep down she wanted me to excel in life and live to be a success! Til this day, my school is standing thanks to her.

When I Reflect About My Collegial, Professional Learning Community

The three consequences of being a part of a caring, collaborative learning community for my personal growth and development are:

1             1.      I am able to be an advocate for all families in the development of their child as well as helping them build positive relationships among one another

2             2.      I am able to look at the history of successful initiatives of other people who fought for those who had issues in early childhood education and to use it to help families of the future.

3             3.      I am able to learn from other early childhood organizations and use their resources to help other families. I can use the organizations to better develop myself as a professional to be a better and positive role model for children.

My goal for using this collegial experience is to take advantage of it and use it to the best of my ability. If there is a concern for any aspect of early childhood education, I will be sure to step up and take a charge on making a change. I also want to encourage more families who may not fully understand early childhood education to enroll their children because it is the best thing for them. As well as guiding those to the resources that will help them enroll their children.

Early Childhood Systems Today: Moving Toward Coherency

• Have I given a complete picture of my family, or are there details missing that I should include in order to complete the assignment successfully? If so, what are your suggestions?
• I have given a complete picture of my family but I am missing the details that I need on the services that will help with the child and family needs. I need to conduct more research on ways that the family can better balance their work and family time to better support the child.

• Is this situation realistic? 
• The situation is very realistic due to the fact that there are plenty of children in the same situation and socioeconomic status. I think that a lot of people can relate to the situation that I have created.

• Are there any specific websites I should be reviewing with regard to learning about quality services and programs for my child and family in this hypothetical family situation?
• For my situation I am looking into the exceptional and special education websites. I am also looking into websites talk about hearing impaired and deaf children. Family support is highly need within this family so I am researching family situations where children are deaf and what they do to better support the child.

The Political Will to Improve Early Childhood Systems

          For my assignment, I did mine on special education and the way that the council advocates for exceptional children is that they work with all people from all levels of government. They examine policy issues, develop responses to the issues that influences those in local, state, provincial and federal legislation. The council also monitors and make recommendations for program regulations and funding. Through this, they are able to maintain network among its partners for influencing policy. I think that this organization is great because they are there to make sure that exceptional children are well taken care of through their networking and influencing policy. They are able to make changes and whatever they see does not fit to their expectations of the treatment of exceptional children then I am sure that they are quick to make changes. The Council of Exceptional Children are the lead advocates of special education policy so whatever needs to be done they are on the case about it!

Reference

Children, C. o. (n.d.). Policy & Advocacy: About CEC's Public Policy. Retrieved from The Council of Exceptional Children: https://www.cec.sped.org/Policy-and-Advocacy

Parent, Family, & Community Engagement

What I have learned from the Parent and Family Stories is that it helps them to feel like they are a part of a community. They also feel like it is a big help towards them because they have to work and not have to use money to pay a babysitter. A lot of the parents saw how well their children progressed in life in general. They were able to see their children learn their ABCs and numbers and to become social with other people. The Parent as Teacher role has an advantage on families because they are able to be at home and support their children in their education. The things that the children learn in school, they are able to comprehend more things at home and can tell their parents what they have learned and can re-track their progress. The children can use what they learn in the classroom and put it towards being at home. Parent and family involvement is highly important to the early childhood field because if families are excited about education, then the children with follow them in that excitement. 

Quality Programs for All Children

         When it comes to public opinion in the US, providing quality services is highly important due to having positive relationships with children and families, understanding and embracing various cultures, being up to date with issues in early childhood, and recording development assessments for children. Within the next five years I can see people advertising opinions and issues in video advertisements, social media, and also books and magazines. This can better spread the word about what is going on in the world of early childhood. We will be able to get better support from those who want to help. For children, families, and the early childhood field it means that we will attract those who care about the welfare of young children. Education has changed over the years but I believe that if we look into our past successes then we can better prepare children, families, and early childhood professionals for school.

Early Childhood Public Policy & Advocacy

I chose this specialization because of my love for policy and how I could possibly make a difference in the lives of children one day due to me advocating for them. I went to school and got a B.A in Political Science with a minor in Public Administration. I wanted to get my masters in something that represented my love for children and found this program. I hope to learn all I can to be an advocate for children. I have a high interest in helping children who have developmental delays or other issues dealing with the brain. I find that there are not a lot of people out there to help them and I want to be able to do just that. While I do not work in policy right now but in education, I hope to take what I learn in my job or future opportunities and learn to keep advocating for children in anything I do. 

Advocates are essential to the early childhood because they want to lay down the issues that are happening in children and family’s lives. Advocates recognize problems and issues that affects them in a negative way and try to do something positive about it. Becoming a skilled and confident advocate is crucial for early childhood professionals because they can make a huge difference in people’s lives by making children’s issues be heard.

What I hope to learn about public policy and advocacy are the different topics of issues that are affecting early childhood and how we as professionals can help those families. I want to know about some of the policies being formed for these issues as well. I want to know about how politics connects with early childhood issues and what they may or may not be doing to solve these problems.

Class Support

The past few weeks in this class were great! I learned so much from everybody and I hope to carry out everything that I have learned in the future to come. I thank everyone for having my back in expanding my thoughts on the topics in this class. This class has definitely helped me to become a better communicator and to learn what it means to have a positive and successful relationship with those that I work with or go in contact with.  I wish everyone excellence and success in their specialization classes as well!! Thank you so much guys and God bless!

Adjourning in Groups

I think that high performing groups are the hardest groups to leave because they worked really hard to achieve success towards their goal. I believe that positive relationships can be formed from this as well so I think that it can make the situation just as hard to say bye to your group. I think that the primary group would be hardest for me to leave because these are people I have known since I was child. My friends are also very close to me as well and I would hate to lose them also. I wish that back in regular school, when working with my classmates that we told each other thank you for their support because we would not be where we are because of each other. I like that we do that in this master’s program. I have never done that until I started this program and it actually makes me feel appreciated that I can be of help to someone else as well as learning from my other classmates. I like expressing thanks to my classmates as well because there is so much that I learn from them as well. I think that adjourning is an essential stage of teamwork because it gives you the chance to evaluate what wrong in your experience and the lessons that you learned for future projects. That way you can make chances and hope for a better experience when working with a team.

Resolving Conflict

In my life I have had a few disagreements or conflicts with family and a couple a months ago I had a conflict with one of my coworkers. She decided that because she was older than me that she could talk to me like I was a child. I didn’t like that one bit. I know that Im young but that does not give you the right to treat me like a child, such as telling me that I need to stop forgetting things. I thought it was called being human but apparently not to her.

In order to manage or resolve conflict: 1) Communicate with that person, your situation and to listen to each other. Do not interrupt and to empathy towards each other to sort the situation out. 2) Have good negotiation skills in order to find agreement and to overcome the challenges.

These are some of the strategies that I myself need to practice in order to resolve conflict better. On the other hand, the situation with my coworker was resolved. I was mad on the inside and barely talked to her but eventually she apologized and realized that it was wrong of her because she knows that I am a great worker. She asked for my forgiveness and along those lines our relationship did get better in the workplace.

Communication Style Profiling

Based off of my results, I am quite pleased with my own from what I know.  My communication anxiety inventory stated that I was somewhat concerned about a number of communication context which is very true for me except my only BIG problem is public speaking. When it came to my verbal aggressiveness, I maintain a good balance between respect and consideration for others and my listening skills are business like and to the point but I may intimidate sensitive listeners. When it came time for my colleague and mom to do the assessments, my communication skills were the same. Surprisingly this woman did not know that I hate public speaking and she highly believed that I was good at it. My verbal aggressiveness scales were different when it came from my mom but she was completely shocked by her results and so was I! She felt like she may had gotten confused with the questions a little. I winded up being significant in which I attack a person's position or statements, and verbal aggression. She knows that I am in no way like that but she said that I am a very respectful person and has never known me to be aggressive. My listening style from my mother states that I am empathetic and concerned with the emotions of others but she said that I should take extra precaution of that because people could take advantage of me trusting them. My colleague also said that she notices that most times I am very quiet around people I don't know but once I get to know them I talk more. Sometimes she notices I don't talk much to the parents but as I get to see them more then I open up more because I seem very shy. My listening style from her was people oriented as well because I am respectful, quiet most times, and very easy to talk to.

Cultural Communication

               I do find myself communicating with people from different groups and cultures. I remember my trip to Europe back in 08, it was interesting because I did a homestay in Germany. The children could speak English but the parents couldn’t. The parents were mostly translated for me in conversations and they also had an American BBQ for me with cupcakes with American flags on them. One morning, the daughters were gone and the parents were downstairs. I needed help putting their sofa bed back together. I pretty much had to play charades to get them to understand me. Before things got worse in communication, the mother grabbed my hand and took me upstairs and allowed me to guide her to the problem. When she fixed the sofa bed, I replied “danke”. She smiled and went back downstairs. That was the most interesting communication situation I have ever had when dealing with different cultures and groups.

               The three strategies that can help in my communication effectively would be

·        To not judge others different from me to gain a deeper understanding than first impressions allow.

·        Accept the fact that I don’t know everything (completely embarrassed for not knowing a lot of German)

·        Allow the person of different culture to immerse me into their own culture. I learned to do that in my homestay and I learned a lot from the Germans. Despite the fact that I did not know a lot of German, they still accepted me into their home and made sure I had the best time ever!

Me and the German sisters (Jessi & Nikki)

Show Communication

The show that I watched was a Korean drama named Angel Eyes.  In the beginning there was an older man and a young woman sitting on a bench. These two characters looked as though they knew each other pretty well. They could be friends, family members or colleagues. Based on the way that they expressed themselves they looked as though they were deep in thought, they had their conversation and the woman smiled at the man and walked away. Two other characters they showed were a young man and an older man. The younger man showed up at the older man’s house with food and they sat and ate in silence. From time to time, they looked at each other without each other knowing. Another scene showed one older man give the younger man a plane ticket and the young man did not look very happy. Then the older man got on his knees beside the man and talked to him. Still the young man did not look happy. By the end of the episode, the young man went to the airport and the young lady from earlier ran around in the airport looking for someone. When she saw the young man, she stood and cried and gave him a hug.

In the second part of the episode with the young man and the older man had me to believe that they were family members because of the way they looked at each other in concern while eating. The young man and young woman to me were a couple because of the way they looked at each other and hugged. I found out of course that the two people in the beginning were father and daughter. The two men were a doctor and a police detective. The man and woman at the end were a former couple but somehow over time found each other again. The character’s movements such as the way the characters touched each other between the couple gave way to who they were. I was almost quite right about the first two characters since they sat by and talked to each other. The older man did look concerned for his daughter but she continued to look happy despite her sadness.

Communication Role Models

When I think of effective communication, I think about my brothers who are police officers. They have to be able to have good communication skills to do their job properly. Good communication skills enable them to diffuse violent altercations, to get people to do what they want, and to create a positive relationship with the public. When talking to victims they have to show empathy, otherwise the situation may get worse. They are quick to say to me, do unto others as you would have them to do to me. They are taught to treat people with respect as they let them. My oldest brother is now a captain of his own squad and has been on his city’s news station talking about various issues in his community. He is a well-respected person and has become officer of the year. Although I am not a police officer, I am still their little sister and they both have taught me about how to communicate with people and to network. So far it has been a great asset to my life.