This week marked the first graduating class of the APPLE (Academic Preparation Program for Law Enforcement) Corps at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, designed for students interested in social justice issues, public service and law enforcement.
Launched four years ago, APPLE Corps is a two-year program that begins the summer before freshman year when the students take a course in enthnographic research within New York’s diverse communities. Students must be enrolled at John Jay College or one of the other CUNY (City University of New York) Justice Academy partner campuses (six community colleges that offer associate degrees in criminal justice).
APPLE Corps is funded by the New York City Council and is a collaboration between John Jay, the CUNY Justice Academy, the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the NYC Department of Education. It has extensive experiential learning opportunities and professional workshops. 
“What I love about APPLE Corps is it opens the minds of students,” said Dr. Crystal Rodriguez, an assistant professor in the social sciences department at Bronx Community College, who teaches the enthnographic research course. “We teach students about policing, but through a different lens. They learn about enthnographic research, where they’re actually administering surveys and conducting interviews.”
During the course, students spend two days per week in the field and two days in the classroom. Rodriguez teaches them how to communicate, relating it to police work. By example, when a police officer is patrolling a neighborhood, he or she has to communicate. Students work in teams, much like police officers.
“How do you get a community to trust you when you’re an outsider coming in?” Rodriguez explained. “The students are on the ground learning. They learn the way you ask questions impacts people’s responses. They learn about research; the importance of collecting data. It’s the same thing at a crime scene.
“That first class really helps them understand what it is to work with a community and how important the community is in solving crimes and in making the community safer.”
