BGSU criminal justice student interning at U.S. District Court

Student Abby Moore connected with her career path after taking BGSU 1910 as an undecided freshman

Like many college freshmen, Bowling Green State University student Abby Moore approached her first year and wasn’t quite sure what direction to take academically.

Just three years after starting as an undecided student, however, Moore found the perfect path for her during her time at BGSU.

After connecting with both the University’s Life Design program and a degree program, Moore is on track to earn both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in criminal justice within four years.

This summer, Moore is serving as a student operations intern for the Clerk's Office at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in Toledo, receiving a crash-course experience into the world of criminal law.

“One thing that was really cool about the Life Design program was that they had us come up with a mission statement, and my mission statement always revolved around helping people and being the voice for people who couldn’t be the voice for themselves, especially on the victim and juvenile justice side of things,” Moore said. “There was an entire part of the criminal justice system that I never realized was there, but it's something I was drawn to once I was in the major.”

Moore, who hails from Massillon, Ohio, near Akron, is spending the bulk of her summer internship court reporting to create transcripts with time stamps that serve as key written records to pair with the electronic system that documents court proceedings. She also helps with jury qualification forms, naturalization ceremonies, sorting through case files and sitting in on court business.

The experience has been both rewarding and valuable for Moore, who intends to pursue law school after obtaining her BGSU degrees.

Moore landed on criminal justice only after taking BGSU 1910: Life Design at BGSU as a freshman, which helped her find a major with which she connected.

The Life Design program, which teaches design-thinking to help students answer the big questions in their lives, is offered to every BGSU undergraduate.

One of the core ideas behind the framework is that when students align their life and their values, good outcomes often follow.

“I teach my students that there is significant evidence from positive psychology that living in alignment with values brings a sense of coherence, meaning and satisfaction,” said Jacintha Murphy, a Life Design coach at BGSU who worked with Moore.

“When students begin to articulate their personal values, those can serve as the ‘compass’ that will guide their decisions no matter what twists and turns life takes.”

Moore said working with Murphy allowed her to work backward on a career: As opposed to picking a single occupation to target, she first defined a big-picture value system that she then applied to her studies.

“Having one-on-one coaching with Jacintha really got to my root values,” Moore said. “Rather than saying I wanted to be in a certain profession, we established what I wanted from my career in a broader sense.”

Once Moore had a path, she hasn’t looked back.

She is taking advantage of the criminal justice program’s accelerated bachelor’s-to-master’s option, which, along with College Credit Plus credits obtained in high school, will allow her to graduate with two degrees in fewer than four years.

Just a few years after Moore began as an undecided student, Murphy said Moore deserves full credit for her success.

“Abby realized that no one else was going to make a decision for her, so she took responsibility for the decision-making process,” Murphy said. “She decided to pursue happiness and satisfaction for herself.”

As she completes her internship, Moore said she is looking forward to pursuing law, a career path that was not initially among her possible degree options, but has been the right fit.

“Criminal justice was actually never on my radar and not something I had considered because I never realized how broad it was,” Moore said. “It wasn’t until I actually got into the major that I could see this is what I actually wanted to do.”