August 29, 2019
Sarah Rueth, a 2010 Nelson Institute alumna, originally came to UW- Madison to pursue a graduate degree in Environment and Resources and achieve her dream of working for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). While participating in a research project, Rueth discovered that she wanted to expand her career goals into criminal justice. However, she still credits the Nelson Institute with instilling her values of community and diversity and allowing her to explore her interests in criminology while continuing to take classes for her degree.
After graduating with her Master’s degree at UW-Madison, Rueth was accepted into the Madison Police Department (MPD) academy where she worked as a correctional officer and achieved her dream of joining the DNR as a ranger. After her time with the MPD, Rueth accepted a job as a police officer in Portage, Wisconsin.
“The Nelson Institute is all about community partnerships and taking a whole bunch of diverse views from different people and different studies and different branches and combining it into one thing,” Rueth says. “That’s something we’re doing as well in policing. We’re trying to develop these partnerships before the problems happen. We’re trying to pull from a lot of different places to get our ideas and improve our practices.”
Sarah Rueth was recently featured in an article for On Wisconsin. Read more from her story here.
Photo Credit: Andy Manis