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View from the Hill
Experiential Education at UNH:
When the World is Your Classroom
The University of New Haven is taking the classroom out of the building, and the students into the field. UNH students are availing themselves of internships, research opportunities, and community service that bring them into contact with scientists, businesspeople, professional engineers, authors and more. Experience combined with education—aka experiential education—is moving UNH students into the future equipped to succeed.
Nikita Carmona ’09
Preparing for a Career in Advocacy
Nikita is not a victim, but she is the president of the University’s Victimology Club. Though only in existence since her freshman year, the club has sponsored or co-sponsored many events on campus including Healthy Relationships Week. Having served as club president since her sophomore year, Nikita is working to build the club from the ground up, hoping to eventually have it become one of the USGA’s top 20 clubs on campus. She says future plans for the group include accompanying a MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) advocate into court to learn first-hand how the criminal process works.
A Hartford, Connecticut native, Nikita was president of her senior class in high school. At UNH, she is a criminal justice major with a minor in psychology. In addition to the Victimology Club, Nikita is also involved in the Sexual Assault Task Force, Speak Out, and SMILE (Students Making an Impact on their Living Environment).
Nikita hopes to intern with the sex offender registry in Middletown or as a victim’s advocate in Bridgeport. After graduation, she plans to work as a victim’s advocate in Connecticut and attend graduate school to study victimology.
Driven to offer the victimized moral and emotional support, Nikita says “Criminal justice doesn’t focus on the victim,” she said. “I want them to be heard.”
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