Meet a Student: Paige Saunders Video Transcript

This is a transcript for the Criminal Justice and Public Policy (CJPP) Student Profile – Paige Saunders video. In the video, CJPP student Paige answers questions about why she chose the University of Guelph and her experience in the program.

Watch the video on YouTube


Text Transcript

Paige: So, my name is Paige Saunders and I'm in my second year of criminal justice and public policy.

Interviewer: Why did you choose the University of Guelph?

Paige: I chose Guelph because I really like the feel of the campus. I came here on the campus day for the March break, and as soon as I stepped foot on campus, I knew that this was home. It was so welcoming, everyone was so supportive and you could tell that they were excited for you to be here. As soon as I came on campus, I knew this is where I wanted to be.

Interviewer: Why did you choose the Criminal Justice and Public Policy program?

Paige: I really liked it because it was so interdisciplinary. It kind of touched on criminology and it touched on politics and in upper years, you got to do philosophy and psychology. So all of it really intrigued me, and I do want to go to law school afterwards. So they really spoke to my interests and they were very well rounded courses, too. So, you know I had options to explore and I really liked that.

Interviewer: What has been your favourite learning experience so far?

Paige: I really enjoyed the wrongful conviction night. It was really interesting to see someone who had gone through the justice system and who did get wrongfully convicted. It's sort of his experiences speaking to how the justice system failed him, but also how he's working with it now to create that better relationship and then exploring his own terms, how he can better the justice system and how he can prevent that from happening again. We've learned that, through courses, the different reasons behind why someone commits a crime versus why someone gets convicted of a crime? So, it was really nice to see that in real life.

Interviewer: How has the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences supported your learning experience?

Paige: There's so many supportive faculty and profs and even TAs that they want you to do well and they want you to learn. I find that especially with profs the passion that they have is inspiring. You can see, they bring in their own work into class. And they've done some experiential learning with us too that it just shows the passion that they have and it makes you want to just jump in already. Just skip the undergrad just jump in and be working in the field, too.

Interviewer: What is your top tip for new CJPP students?

Paige: Probably my top tip would be go to class. And definitely do your readings because so often on exams and quizzes, they take directly from the reading. So do your readings go to class and definitely you get out what you put in. Everything is a building block to the next. So one class is a building block to the next class and a lot of them overlap. So you can pull from one class in to the other. So what you put in you'll get out.