One woman’s journey to help others
Staci Keenan ’14 of Jaffrey, NH, was 11 years old and home alone when intruders broke in. Fortunately she was unharmed, but the experience changed her life forever: it inspired her to help people. “The way that I was helped by my local police department—they were great,” recalls Keenan, who was honored with a Brave Citizen of New Hampshire Award from the state the following year. “They made me feel like I was part of the investigation process and kept me and my family informed about how the investigation was progressing and when the robbers were caught. I wanted to help people the way that they helped me.”
Years later, when Keenan started her college search, she knew exactly what she wanted: a small New England school that offered a criminal justice major. Plymouth State was the perfect fit. “The criminal justice program was a huge motivation for me to come here,” she says. “Many of the professors have worked or currently work in the field, so I knew they wouldn’t be teaching me from textbooks; they’d be teaching me from first-hand experience.”
The program and its faculty weren’t the only things that won Keenan over. “After walking around the beautiful campus and hearing about the different student clubs and organizations, I could see myself fitting in and thriving here,” she says.
As it turns out, Keenan did fit in and she has certainly thrived at PSU. “The first week of my freshman year, I went into my advisor’s office to introduce myself and I said, ‘This is my plan: I want to study abroad, graduate early, and go to law school. Let’s make it happen,’” she recalls.
Keenan’s advisor, Christopher Warn ’02, ’03G, who is not only a PSU faculty member but also police chief of Campton, NH, worked with her to ensure she got the most out of her PSU experience. Keenan spent a semester abroad at the Universidad de Málaga in Málaga, Spain, where she took her electives and general education courses, became fluent in Spanish, and traveled throughout the country. An internship at the Cheshire County Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Keene, NH, gave her an opportunity to apply what she’d learned in class to the real world. She took extra courses each semester, as well as during the summer and winter, to earn her degree a semester early. She was inducted into the Criminal Justice Honor Society as a sophomore, an honor reserved for students who have a GPA of 3.2 or higher and rank in the top 35 percent of their class. And she achieved all of this while holding down various part-time jobs on and off campus.
While law school remains a long-term goal, Keenan is finding great satisfaction in her role as victim’s advocate with Voices Against Violence, a local crisis services agency she joined shortly after earning her Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice last December. Her responsibilities include working with victims of domestic and sexual violence crimes, putting them in touch with lawyers, accompanying them to court, and more. “I’ve been there for four months and I love it,” she says. “I’m learning so much.”
Keenan’s education and her work with Voices Against Violence have confirmed that the goal she set for herself as an 11-year-old—to help people as she was helped—is indeed what she wants to do with her life. “It’s truly rewarding to see the difference you can make in the life of another person,” she says. “This experience has shown me that victim advocacy is what I want to be doing. This is my passion.”—Brittany Harty ’15
Tags: Chief Christopher Warn Christopher Warn Staci Keenan study abroad Voices Against Violence
