High schoolers ‘tap’ into college experience
Dave Valdez
The Signal
Six students from the Teen and Police Service Academy (TAPS) visited and participated in the Student Conference for Research and Creative Arts at UHCL.
The TAPS students displayed posters they created signifying their experience with TAPS, a program designed to reduce the social distance between at-risk youth and law enforcement.
They also provided explanations and demonstrations of their art, many of them presenting in person for the first time.
While on campus, the TAPS students visited several campus programs/departments and learned about the everyday life of UHCL students.
Everett Penn, associate professor of criminology and mentor for the TAPS program, introduced the students to the campus with the hope it would inspire them to continue in the pursuit of their education.
“With the emerging reality of more police in schools, the relationship between teens and police must be one of trust and openness,” Penn said. “The teen must trust the police officer will operate in a manner that provides safety and fairness to the teen. The police officer must display openness to the teen so that diffusing of situations occur to avoid a justice system response. Involvement of the justice system should be viewed as the last result, not the first response.”
Patrick Price, Randy Mathews, Rodger Ayala, Desmond Words, Mario Ayala and Marcus Christopher were the six students from TAPS who visited UHCL.
“I changed my whole outlook on how I used to look at officers,” Christopher said about his experience with TAPS. “What I understand is they are just trying to protect us and keep themselves out of harms way.”
“[It] changed the way I do things now,” Ayala said. “I talk to the police now.”
Through the TAPS program, the students gain more understanding of the police and how to interact with them.
“The most important thing about TAPS to me is how easy it is to connect to the police,” Matthews said. “They are so friendly.”
Ranging from wanting to study music, to social work and criminal justice, the visiting students from TAPS were interested in the different areas of UHCL. They visited department offices, classrooms, the mock courtroom, the admissions office, and recreational areas of the campus.
“I like how the campus is spacious and big,” Price said. “There’s not that many people crowded around.”
In addition to various departments and locations on campus, the students were given a tour of The Signal newsroom and even provided their opinions on the technology that should be used to dispense the news to students. Unanimously, the students agreed that a mobile application would be the best form to deliver the news for students of the future – something The Signal staff is currently pursuing.
The TAPS students expressed an interest in continuing their education at a collegiate level, considering the UHCL campus as a campus they would like to attend.
The students who visited UHCL are six of the original students of the TAPS program.
For more information about TAPS, visit the Facebook page www.facebook.com/TAPSAcademy.
To read more about the Student Conference for Research and Creative Arts, click here to read The Signal reporter Graham Clifford’s article “Research Conference provides students a venue to display work.”
