Hunter Ewart had only been on campus a few days when she accidently wandered into Wilson Hall on her way to class in a different building (“I think I may have been texting and walking,” she admits). Ewart immediately realized she was in the wrong building but was captivated by a lecture she could hear. “He was talking about gangs,” she says of Dr. David Nicholson, “and before I knew it, students were coming out of classrooms, and I realized I had totally missed my class. But it was awesome. I loved his lecture.”
That experience convinced her to pursue a criminal justice major, and the senior from St. Joseph will graduate in December 2014 with three emphases – corrections, juvenile delinquency and administration. 
Last year, when Dr. Greg Lindsteadt, associate professor of criminal justice, encouraged students to restart the American Corrections Association student group that had not been active for several years, Ewart was on board and now serves as the group’s president. “I think I threw myself under the bus,” she said with a laugh. “But we needed unity and more collaboration among students.”
The group re-organized in the spring of 2013 and last fall, students held a campus book drive for the Riverbend Treatment Facility in St. Joseph and attended a conference. They also helped with a Missouri Division of Youth Services football tournament in the Griffon Indoor Sports Complex on campus and solicited donations and provided snack bags for the youth who played. This spring, they held a drive to collect baby items for women in correctional facilities in Nebraska whose babies are allowed to visit.
One of the group’s main activities, however, is touring correctional facilities across the Midwest, which Dr. Lindsteadt says helps students compare the philosophies of the states’ correctional systems and determine which is the best fit for them.
Ewart said the tours she has experienced in Missouri, Nebraska and Kansas convinced her to pursue a career in corrections.
“I’ve gotten a good education here,” Ewart says. “I can apply everything I’ve learned in my future job.”
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