by Katie Barton | news editor

The Criminal Justice Club provides multiple opportunities year-round to bring the whole community closer together.

“We’re getting ready to have a coffee with a cop event in November,” criminal justice club sponsor Bianca Edwards said. “What we do is we invite law enforcement from around our community to come in and meet with students. Everybody’s invited. It’s a way for folks to interact with law enforcement in a positive way.”

The club also has a Blue Santa toy drive going on through Oct. 29.

“We are doing Christmas in October, and what that is benefiting is the San Antonio police department’s Blue Santa program,” Edwards said.  “What they’re seeking is toy donations for children between the ages of zero-to-12, and they’ll deliver those to kiddos around town that wouldn’t otherwise get gifts like that.”

The Criminal Justice club also provides opportunities for students to meet with professionals to discuss different career paths such as their Ladies in Law enforcement luncheon.

“We get to learn more about the profession that we want to go into. So say we ask some questions and we figured out all the workload is a lot more than thought. And then we can kind of reevaluate our plan for life and what we want to get into. And we just also get to learn a lot of interesting facts about people,” criminal justice club officer Bethany Williams said.

Though Edwards does have prior experience as a lawyer, she can’t give insight into every career path related to law and law enforcement; she holds these meetings so students can learn about as many career choices as possible.

“It’s important for them to be able to share their stories and their experiences, and they can talk about some of the jobs they had before versus what they have now, because most of my students don’t even know those jobs are available,” Edwards said.

In general, the club’s goal is to provide a space for students to explore career paths as well as create a place where students can provide for their community.

“It’s important because it shows that the clubs that Johnson aren’t just focused on the students and it shows that we care about others in the community,” Williams said