Alison Oliver will be graduating in December 2020 with an M.S. in Criminal Justice, She has been involved with TYJI since the summer of 2019.
“My experience with the TYJI will be extremely beneficial to my future because of all of the tools I have been able to acquire along with the ample events, community meetings, and stakeholders that I have had the opportunity to be exposed to. Through this internship I hope to experience as many facets of youth justice as possible and to be able to enhance my skills regarding research, data collection and analysis, effective communication skills, as well as critical thinking and problem-solving skills. I was interested in an internship with the TYJI because I wanted to be a part of a movement of positive change in the area of youth justice. I wanted to see what type of research was being collected and analyzed on the youth in Connecticut and be able to dive deeper into areas that need awareness such as school-based diversion and delinquency prevention. I think there is a great need for the youth in our state to be protected, supported, and to be diverted toward a path of overall positive youth development and achievement. The Tow Youth Justice Institute seemed like the place to be in order to assess and address these needs.”