Southwestern Michigan College’s Criminal Justice Program won two more gold medals at this spring’s Skills USA-MI Skills and Leadership Conference in Grand Rapids.

Addy Wetzel, a 2025 Michigan Lutheran High School graduate, claimed SMC’s 10^th consecutive gold medal in criminal justice.

“This is our sixth gold medal in Crime Scene Investigation (CSI),” a team competition, Professor of Criminal Justice Dr. Donald Ricker said.

The winning Roadrunner CSI team consisted of Gabriella Alfaro from Niles, Nola Strausberg from Lawton and Audrey Wolf, a cross country/track athlete from Berrien Springs.

Wetzel, a criminal justice major, hopes to go into law enforcement after earning her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.

“After SMC, I hope to continue my education through SMC’s CJ program with Ferris State University,” Wetzel said. “I would be able to attend classes as a criminal justice major and minor in psychology at the same time without having to travel to Ferris State’s campus. With a bachelor’s degree, I hope to become an officer and eventually try to go into the FBI.”

“The fact that SMC is a community college made me want to apply and attend SMC,” Wetzel said. “I knew that I would be saving money if I went to a community college, especially one close to my community.

“It is a bit of a drive from where I live, but I would rather be working in my community to make money to pay for tuition than live in the dorms for the college experience,” Wetzel said.

This summer, she plans to work at a day care summer camp that will have kids ranging from ages 6 to 13.

“ I loved working in the preschool room during the college semesters,” she said, “so I thought I would enjoy this over” working in a big-box store.

“I also am trying my best to put myself out there in my community with things I enjoy doing, including running, working out, volleyball and church activities.”

Wetzel said, “I was drawn to CJ because I watched cop shows while I was growing up. As I watched these shows, I grew to love the concept of solving crimes/problems by looking at the evidence and helping others through this way.

“I have currently loved the concept of profiling people through their behavior, guessing their next actions through it.”

As to why all of this year’s SMC medalists happen to be female, she said, “I think other women are being drawn to CJ and the police force because of the empathy they can have towards others and the situations they are going through.

“I also think it’s a way they can prove they are capable of doing hard things while helping those in need. “Furthermore,” Wetzel said, “the law enforcement departments are willing to raise pay as an incentive for other people, both men and women, to join the force.”

The SkillsUSA competition for the criminal justice part was determined through a written test and five different skills/scenarios.

The written test was based on things students most likely learned in a college-level criminal justice/corrections class.

The skills included a traffic stop, an arrest, a witness/victim interview after a crime was committed, a 911 hang-up call and a job interview that required a resume and a cover letter. Within all these skills, the judges desired the competitors to complete certain things.

“For example,” Wetzel said, “the interviews needed you to ask specific information, like names, locations and contact information. For the arrest, we had to successfully put handcuffs on a person and search for all the objects on the person.

“To prepare for the competition, I went to the SMC CJ club every Tuesday with Dr. Don to work with a deputy sheriff from the area. He walked us, the crime scene crew and others interested in the CJ part, through the proper techniques to arrest and search and other things we should know. I also studied for the written test, using my notes from classes.”

During one of the skills scenarios she had a chance to talk to South Haven’s Ryan Peterson, a previous SMC medalist.

Strausberg, named to the spring President’s List, is also majoring in criminal justice.

“I was originally interested in the forensic science aspect,” she said, “but since then I have changed my direction of interest towards EMT work and possibly 911 operator or police dispatch work.”

After earning her SMC associate degree, Strausberg plans to take a certification program to become a licensed emergency medical technician and then hopefully move directly into the job. 

“My decision was influenced by the great things I've heard about SMC from people I went to high school with, how close I am to home and the amazing financial help I've received from the school.”

Strausberg said the CSI contest consisted of four main categories: a written exam, a short skills evaluation, a scenario crime scene to process and a paperwork/evidence collection room.

“The crime scene we were given was what appeared to be a homicide done by stabbing with a knife. We entered the room and were given a few minutes to prepare without judges before our time (30 minutes) began in which we were expected to properly process the scene and collect evidence.

“We observed and took pictures of all of the evidence, some of which included a knife, blood, a bag of white powder, a bloody piece of a glove and other items.

“Before we even entered the room that had the scene, we made sure to organize and prepare all of the equipment we had brought. We used shoe coverings to make sure we didn't track any dirt or leave any imprints on the scene, put gloves on and made sure to have extra to change out in case they got contaminated or dirty.

“We unfortunately did not have a camera but were permitted to use our ‘department-authorized’ cell phone to take pictures of the scene and the evidence.

“During our time frame we made sure to get pictures of everything from every angle possible, draw out a map of the room marking the directions and measurements of everything, write a full detailed report on what we could observe and bag any and all evidence that could be either picked up or swabbed.

“We also took fingerprints off of the knife that was found and put them on a paper card to observe later. The paperwork and evidence room allowed us to fill out any necessary forms as well as mark the time collected and information about the object for every piece of evidence we bagged. For preparation during club meetings we had a deputy from Cass County come in most days to discuss law enforcement topics with us as well as show us how to do things like fingerprinting or take-down techniques, but I also have previous experience with forensic work from a law enforcement class I took my entire senior year of high school at Van Buren Technical Vocational School which helped me greatly with this competition.”

Strausberg believes “so many women are being drawn to criminal justice not just because it's an interesting and important topic, but because of the need for change.

“Whether that be in law enforcement or courtrooms or prisons, there is still that gap or difference seen between men and women that shouldn't exist. In what has mostly been a male-dominated field in history sometimes women can be taken not as seriously or can be underestimated, but there's no reason for that and seeing my entire team and CJ club be made up of women showed that change in real time.

“My own sister just graduated from ranger academy in northern Michigan and is currently working for the DNR in state parks. This in itself is an example that no matter what field of criminal justice it is, women and men can work equally and both have their strengths. Change and equality is important and I believe that criminal justice is one of the most important career fields for this change.”