What has been your experience at Longwood compared to your expectations when you were being recruited?
When I visited campus as a recruit, I noticed everybody was really nice and friendly, but I thought maybe it was just for show. When I actually got here, I realized that’s how the campus really is.
What are you studying, and what do you want to do with your degree?
My area of study is criminal justice. I’m focusing mainly on cybersecurity, but I’m not sure if I want to do anything computer-related yet. After school, I either want to work at the federal or local government level. If I go the federal route, I’d like to do something in the area of Drug Enforcement Agency or narcotics; I’m just really passionate about that. If I go local, I’d be a patrol officer for a few years and hopefully work my way up to being a detective.
Paige Robertson ’19 is a criminal justice major from Fredericksburg.
How would you describe your academic experience at Longwood?
It’s a very small school, and I wasn’t sure what to expect academically. But this past summer, I interned in a sheriff’s office with a student who went to another school in Virginia, and I knew a lot more about several things than she did, even though she was a year ahead of me in her criminal justice program. That was cool to see how much I’d learned here compared with if I’d gone somewhere else.
You recently had an on-campus meeting with a recruiter from a national government intelligence agency. What did you learn from that?
During the meeting, the recruiter was impressed with how well I was doing academically while still being a student athlete. She liked that I was a student-athlete—so if you don’t think that can help you career-wise, it actually gave me an in with her.