Kagan McCarty

This will be my final year at UW-Madison, I will be graduating this upcoming May with a degree in Psychology and minor in Criminal Justice. Throughout my time at UW-Madison I have had many opportunities and have gained so much experience. In my time here I have been a member of the UW Marching Band, an undergraduate researcher with the Devine Prejudice & Intergroup Relations Lab and the Curtin Addiction Lab, as well as had the amazing opportunity to work with the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

This past summer I had the opportunity to be a part of the team at the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation Wisconsin Statewide Intelligence Center (a mouthful to say the least). WSIC functions as a statewide agency that shares intelligence from a local to federal level, aiding in intelligence gathering, analyzing, and disseminating. This summer I had the opportunity to be a part of this process and create national intelligence products and partake in statewide investigations.

Interning with WSIC has changed my life. The opportunities and experience that I received does not compare to anything I have been a part of in my entire life. The amount of knowledge and information I have learned has been off the charts and I couldn’t begin to imagine where I would be today without this internship. This experience has truly helped me direct my career path towards that of civil service; I plan to pursue possible careers in the federal justice system and hopefully work in the intelligence community.

I am extremely grateful to the Audrey J. Harris family for helping support me through this amazing opportunity. The family’s generous scholarship lifted a weight off my shoulders and truly allowed me to fully immerse myself during my time with the Department of Justice. It is with pride that I say I got my internship extended, and I truly believe that the time and energy I was able to put in that granted me that extension could not have happened without the help from this family.