The Criminal Minds class of around 100 students gathered in the PAC on Tuesday, Jan. 21 for a presentation from guest speaker and FBI agent Chris Gianakura. Full of anticipation, they eagerly waited for Gianakura’s lecture.
For the past couple of years with the exception of Covid, Gianakura has come to WA to give a yearly speech for the seniors in the Criminal Minds class, and the tradition continued this year. During his presentation, Gianakura talked about his role in the FBI and what his job entails. He also informed the students about other jobs in the FBI that they might be intrigued by.
Criminal Minds collage is a full year course available to all seniors. The class has a variety of topics taught by the four teachers, history teacher Michael Martell, history curriculum coordinator Adam Ingano, psychology teacher Laurie Lorenzo and psychology teacher Scott Cruikshank. This class is unique in that students change teachers for each term.
Martell, Ingano, Cruikshank, and Lorenzo all teach different units in the class. Martell teaches the introduction into the criminal justice system, such as the FBI and the police system. His section also goes into research and writing about specific cases. Cruikshank teaches forensic psychology, Ingano teaches terrorism, and Lorenzo teaches American conspiracies.
The Criminal Minds class has undergone some changes, but the idea of having guest speakers to give real world perspectives has always stayed the same from the beginning.
An FBI agent has visited WA for the past 13 years, talking to both the History Alive collage and the Criminal Minds class. There have been multiple different agents that have come to speak, but Gianakura has come to WA for the past six years.
There have been a US Marshal, a canine officer, prosecutors and many more speakers in various fields. Some of the speakers are people from local departments that the students might not otherwise interact with. The main reason for having the speakers is that they provide a real world experience that teachers are simply unable to provide to the students.
Other than providing an authentic experience, the speakers have connections, so students could reach out to them if they are ever interested in pursuing a career in that field.
“The guest speakers give firsthand knowledge of something that I can never explain right to my class,” Martell said. “[The students get] really authentic learning from having a guest speaker [compared] to listening to me or doing a lesson with me.
