<p>Uh, I am going into 10th Grade this fall and have feel that I wasted my 9th grade year. </p>
<p>Security and Protective Services Majors:
Law Enforcement
Computer Forensices
Criminal Justice
etc. etc. etc. etc. </p>
<p>I live in Syracuse, NY. Any specific suggestions?</p>
<p>before we give you specific suggestions, give us a specific question. What are you asking for? EC’s? Majors? Goats?</p>
<p>Just off the top of my head, maybe Mock Trial? BTW 10th Grade is not too late to do anything, if that’s what you’re implying. Lots of people don’t do anything/much Freshman year.</p>
<p>Sports related, teamwork activities. Football, baseball, and soccer may be good. </p>
<p>Demonstration of leadership skills in academic activities. </p>
<p>There are no specific set of ECs you should do. Focus on those that involve group work and leadership and you’ll be safe. No one expects you to intern with a local CSI. ( and please don’t be a vigilante)</p>
<p>At 14 or 15, you’re probably still too young for most volunteer/training programs in your field of interest. The minimum age is typically 16. It’s a bit late to sign up for summer youth programs this year, but I’d suggest you contact this gentleman, chat with him about your interests, and ask him for some advice on youth programs or other ways to get some exposure to the LE world: [url=<a href=“http://www.northsidepolice.com/officerclarke.html]About”>About Officer Clarke]About</a> Officer Clarke<a href=“department%20phone%20number%20at%20the%20bottom%20of%20the%20page”>/url</a></p>
<p>A few words of advice: The absolute very, very best thing you can do to give yourself an advantage in law enforcement and computer forensics is to keep a perfectly squeaky clean record. Especially in the computer forensics area, a department will train you in their tools and protocol, but they have a really hard time finding people who have clean records. Now is the time to start building yours. Stay away from drugs, drinking, hacking, reckless driving, shoplifting, and all the stupid thrill-seeking stuff you’ll see your peers do. Develop a reputation with your school administrators by being 100% honest, trustworthy, and reliable. Avoid potentially compromising situations (e.g., classmates’ parties without parents around). When you get old enough to have bills and a credit card, always pay them on time and don’t go wild with charges. Walk the straight and narrow, starting right now. That will give you a huge advantage in the field. Seriously.</p>
<p>Another thing that gives you an advantage in any LE job anywhere is military service. If JROTC is offered at your school, look into it and see if it appeals to you. Think about it carefully and consult with your parents; military service is obviously a very big commitment.</p>
<p>This may change by the time you graduate from college, but I can tell you that I know many, many CFE’s from various parts of the country and around the world – and all of them (the ones I know) came up through the ranks as regular agents or beat cops without any special computer skills. The network administrator of my local FBI office was promoted from her job as supplies manager. Law enforcement agencies hire people they can trust. Then they train them for the positions they hired them into.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>so you mean that if you have good grades, good scores, a great, clean record, and have a few EC’s then you’re good? my teachers say that you should base your EC’s on your interests but you should make sure that you should have EC’s based on your future major? I think that j007de should get an internship or join a club that is close to the security majors. But still I want to go into computer science, but took like no class or did an EC related to that major. But yeah, geek_mom got most of it right.</p>
<p>j007de indicated a specific interest in law enforcement and related fields. That’s a bit different from most careers, in that direct involvement is difficult for minors. LEAs just don’t hire kids as interns in the forensics lab. One obvious reason: CFEs testify. Another: Much of the evidence they handle is wildly inappropriate for minors.</p>
<p>OTOH, the local sheriff’s office often does have a “posse” program for volunteers who are over 16. That would be much more useful career-wise than trying to mess around with computer forensics freeware on his/her own. The software that’s actually used in forensics labs isn’t available to most kids; it’s classified, sold to LE only, or prohibitively expensive. </p>
<p>And most high school aged “clubs” that are “close to the security majors” would tend to be liabilities rather than assets, as the focus at that level is largely on borderline-illegal activities. Not the right direction for j007de’s interests.</p>
<p>Gryffon5147’s suggestion (team sports) is worthwhile because that sort of activity will cultivate personal qualities that are well suited to service in a paramilitary organization (which is what LEAs are). Scouting is a good activity too, for the same reason.</p>
<p>As to computer science, it’s never been easier to get involved in programming as a teen, and it’s pretty simple to build an extracurricular track record of programming as a solitary pursuit. Free compilers and training resources are all over the Net; end results can be published online as freeware or demonstrated as part of a Web site of compelling utility. But that’s not what j007de asked about.</p>
<p>Where the interests do intersect from a layman’s perspective would be chiefly in operating system design (specifically file systems), network communication protocols, and possibly hardware. It would be advantageous to have some expertise in those areas going in. But again, most CFEs come up through the traditional ranks of law enforcement; they don’t come directly into the field through computer science.</p>
<p>Yeah, you’re right. There are no clubs in security in Syracuse, NY to be that exact, but hacking is now really popular with teens. I don’t why kids do it, though. And it’s not hacking into their own graphing calculators, anymore. I read PC World, everyday, and I heard this 12 year old kids was like hacking into the FBI website. Yo, that kid will never ever be able to even get a good job. </p>
<p>You see I heard that it doesn’t matter if you know skills like html, javascript, or know how to use a lot of operating systems outside of windows and Mac. People told me that I have to do something with it though, like work for someone at a computer shop using it. Don’t you know hard it is to find a job like that, especially at this age?</p>
<p>Very few colleges in the U.S. use ECs as admission factors. Those colleges that do are colleges that have such an overabundance of high stat applicants that the colleges can pick and choose from among those students to create an active, diverse student body. The colleges that do this are places like Harvard and Yale, which don’t offer majors in criminal justice and other things related to security and protective services. The many colleges that do offer the kind of majors that you’re looking for overwhelmingly use grades and scores as admission factors.</p>
<p>
Ha… I’m sorry… This has got to be one of the funniest things I’ve read in a long time. 
That sort of activity has been popular with teens since I was one. You’re right about the effect that such behavior can have on employment prospects. The meme of genius kids breaking into big company (or big government) systems and subsequently getting hired by their victims because they were so 1337 is a myth.</p>
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<p>True that having skills is not useful as an EC; you have to use them to do something worthwhile. Then you can point to the something you did. But working at a computer shop would be marginal in its relationship to computer science (although a job is always good). Better would be to write your own software to do something interesting, then publish that software under the GPL. Or maybe write iPhone applications (bonus: you could get a little income). HTML and Javascript would apply more to graphic design or GIT programs than to computer science. For computer science, you’d want to look into Python or Java (which is not the same as Javascript). The compilers can be downloaded for free. Java is the language used in the AP Comp Sci test; Python is the language used in Harvey Mudd College’s introductory Comp Sci classes.</p>
<p>
Knowing how to use various operating systems isn’t the point for computer forensics. Knowing how they work is more important – how they store and delete files, how they manage memory, how they communicate, how and where they maintain user information. And the more common operating systems (read, MacOS and Windows) are more useful to know, since that’s what most of your targets (the bad guys) will be using. Possibly a flavor of Linux too, if your targets are hacker types.</p>
<p>
NSM speaks the truth as usual. In fact, many of the programs that specifically emphasize computer forensics or information security are offered by community colleges! Most of what I’ve been discussing on this thread relates more to job prospects than to college preparation. And you don’t have to go to an Ivy to get into LE; an elite college degree like that might actually work against you because of the common “cultural differences” between LE and academia. This is a sweeping generalization, but one that’s held so far in my experience.</p>
<p>Oh… one other word of caution to j007de: In your quest to add interesting experiences to your resume, avoid taking any internships with defense attorneys or their firms. That would close some doors immediately and permanently.</p>
<p>Good luck to both of you.</p>
<p>“In your quest to add interesting experiences to your resume, avoid taking any internships with defense attorneys or their firms. That would close some doors immediately and permanently.”</p>
<p>Why? I don’t get it. Sure defense attorneys most of the time defend the most unethical people, but I still do not understand.</p>
<p>About hacking, you can’t even take an ethical hacking class without getting in trouble? What if there are kids who drink, smoke, and hack, but it never gets on paper? I mean just drinking and smoking when no is around? I mean I do not drink or smoke or hack, but have the FBI or CIA or colleges have accepted kids in those majors and made a huge mistake?</p>
<p>^ “Ethical hacking” classes teach you to use the tools, but don’t encourage you to break the law. No problem there (and part of the reason why some infosec folks are manic about differentiating between “hacking” and “cracking,” the latter being the bad one). Breaking the law is problematic. I mean, a civil speeding ticket or parking ticket won’t kill you, but a criminal offense is a problem. Obviously underage drinking won’t show up on your record if you aren’t caught doing it, but some agencies require a polygraph test and most federal agencies will require a background check in which your family, co-workers, and other close associates will be interviewed. So it’s not all about the criminal record or (preferably) lack of one.</p>
<p>As to the defense attorneys, their job is to advocate for their clients, and some are quite aggressive (and in some cases underhanded) in doing so. Their goals and the goals of criminal investigators are incompatible. If you want to work for law enforcement in criminal investigations, or even receive training from some organizations, having worked or consulted for “the other side” is problematic. It will bar you from membership in HTCIA and HTCC, for one thing, and will render you less than trustworthy among many in the industry.</p>
<p>Wait. Is Mock Trial actually a good EC for like criminal justice, police science, etc.?</p>
<p>The problem is the I did get invited to be on my team’s Mock Trial, but then, I’m like, “isn’t it all lawyers’ stuff?” I understand that defense attorneys will ruin my career and I never liked lawyers anyway. Should I join or should I not join?</p>