Symposium held for women looking to join the criminal justice field

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) — 32 female students are paving the way to pursue a career in criminal justice, a field that is male dominated.

Junior and senior students had the opportunity to change the narrative by being inspired by women who are currently in the criminal justice field, sharing insight into how to accomplish their goals.

"You are leading a pack and blazing a trail that's making it so much easier for the next generation," says Judge Emily Kemper.

The Future Women of Criminal Justice symposium started as an idea, when teacher Jeff Hands saw the majority of his students were girls. Hands called in facors to help showcase successful women in the career field, including Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Diana Moers.

Moers says when she ran, she didn't quit because she wanted to show that a girl can do scary things and be successful.

"I thought if I can inspire someone to just put their name out there and go for it no matter the result that was really really important to me to keep pressing on and doing that and showing an example that women have a voice women can run for office," says Moers. "I just thought it's really important especially for women not only to have a seat of the table by being a lawyer but also to put their name in for the election."

Castle High School senior Maryln Cox is one of the students helping with the conversation, wanting to be a criminal psychologist herself. She says helping with this event is a way to bring awareness to students, but also to the community that women can be in this career field.

Cox says her class is filled with girls who want to do a variety of different careers in the criminal justice world.

"A lot of people use a lot of girls in our class too want to go into like being a police officer working on the road canine but Justin in my class I literally see everything," says Cox. "There's everyone in our class wants to be all based on different things from canine officers to prosecute the judge to US attorneys, she just working the road and state police and also like crime scene and stuff and all that kind of stuff so it's just kind of cool just to be able to see everyone interested in all different things."

The event also featured men in the profession, showing support for the girls who want to have a career alongside them.