June 19, 2008
Media contact: Anne Russell
Cell: 604-798-3709
Office: 604-795-2826
or 604-504-7441, local 2826
anne.russell@ucfv.ca
MA Crim grad Sherry Bot of Abbotsford first governor general’s gold medal winner at UFV
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| Gov-general gold medal winner Sherry Bot with UFV VP Academic Dianne Common. |
Sherry Bot just keeps making history.
She was one of the first two students to ever earn a master’s degree
at the University of the Fraser Valley. Now she’s the first to be
awarded the governor general’s gold medal for academic achievement at
the master’s degree level.
The Abbotsford resident was part of the first 15-student Master of
Arts in Criminal Justice class at UCFV and as among the “first past
the post” in the race to graduate, meeting the deadline to qualify for
the June 2007 Convocation ceremonies.
Bot had earlier earned her BA in Crim at UFV, then called UCFV.
Her research for her MA degree focused on the very topical subject of
crime reduction, with a particular emphasis on the role of inter-agency
partnerships at the local level. She was part of a City of Surrey
fact-finding mission to England, and did some comparisons between the
two jurisdictions.
“Part of crime reduction looks at targeting prolific offenders,”
Bot says. “Since most crime is committed by a very small percentage of
the criminal population, if you focus on them and changing their
behaviour, it can result in real reduction in crime rates.”
The crime reduction model encourages inter-agency cooperation, so that
the education, health care, policing, probation, youth counselling,
corrections, fire, and housing agencies are all working together,” she
reports.
“A big part of crime reduction is drug intervention, since so many
crimes are committed by addicts desperate for money to get their next
fix,” she adds. “So the British crime reduction model ensures that
people who test positive for drugs upon arrest can be in treatment the
same day. If they refuse, they face jail time.”
Bot’s research highlighted some of the differences between the two
countries with regards to information resource sharing, accountability,
roles and responsibilities, and power differentials when looking at
partnerships at the local level.
Now that she’s finished her MA and among the first graduates, she
says that it’s “pretty exciting to be setting a precedent. The 18
months went by really quickly, and it was great to be in a class with
people from so many different backgrounds. It was a discussion-based
learning style as opposed to purely instructor-led.”
Since last October, she has been employed with the Canadian Border
Services Agency in the Vancouver Metro District (after going to Quebec
for 9 weeks of training). She is currently a border services officer,
with a goal of getting into investigations or intelligence. She also
remains interested in policing as a career, and still volunteers in this
environment through the Abbotsford Restorative Justice Association, and
works one day a week as a file quality reviewer at the New Westminster
Police Service.
She sends thanks to her professors, Criminal Justice department staff,
and UCFV librarians for the help they provided as the first crim
master’s class pioneered graduate studies at UCFV.
“Receiving the governor general’s gold medal is a tangible way to
recognize the commitment and work I put into the MA program, but I think
the most valuable thing I took away from the program was the opportunity
to network with people that I may not have crossed paths with if it had
not been for this specific experience,” she says. “I have maintained
the relationships I made with fellow students and faculty and I look
forward to hearing about the growth of the Master in Criminal Justice
program, as well as the development of master’s programs in other
disciplines at UFV.”
“Sherry demonstrated how the MA program brought together
practitioners and academics in a dynamic experience. She is very
deserving of the governor general’s gold medal. She is consistently
outstanding in her presentations and papers. We are very proud of
her,” said Dr. Martin Silverstein, director of the UCFV School of
Criminology and Criminal Justice.
To find out more about the MA in Criminal Justice and other crim
studies options at UCFV, visit www.ucfv.ca/criminology.
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