Reflections Magazine Issue #70 - Fall 2009 | Page 24

Alumni Feature

continued from page 23

I never had anything good on there for a very
long time. I had all these bad things. I lost my job.
I lost my partner, lost this and lost that... It took
many years but the good list came out.
“I’ve got a great marriage. Great kids. And I have
a bunch of trooper friends of mine who (now)
say, ‘Man, I wish I was you. You have a great job.’
Nobody wanted to be me 15 years ago, but they
all want to be me now. It all came out in the
wash great.”

“Self-Thinking”
Police Officer
Scott Hephner Says Education
Is Becoming Law Enforcement’s
Tool of Choice
Scott Hephner had already achieved his career
goal of becoming a police officer when he decided to go back to school.
In fact, the 48-year-old had risen quickly up the
ranks of the Hillsdale Police Department, first
as an auxiliary officer, then a dispatcher, finally
to sergeant, the position he currently holds
which includes field training responsibilities
for new officers.
“My parents never really talked to me about
going to college,” said Hephner, who married a
couple of years out of high school and started
a family. “It wasn’t a big topic at that time, and
there wasn’t need. You could go out and get a
job (without a college degree).”
So what kept gnawing at him? Seeing all three
of his children pursue a college degree, as well
as the officers he trains, made him feel a bit hypocritical. “Every police we hire either has an associate’s degree or a bachelor’s degree,” he said. “The
personal feeling for me is that I had to go back
and do this, too.”
And he did, deciding to enroll at Jackson Community College, then completing his four-year
degree at Siena Heights University’s JCC center.
Despite working various shifts (“I never had the
same days off every week”), Hephner was able to
progress his way towards his bachelor’s degree
in criminal justice.
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Reflections Fall ’09

“One thing about Siena Heights, they do a great
job picking their faculty,” he said. “Their professors, whether they are full-time or adjunct, it’s
almost like it’s individualized instruction, even
though it’s not.”

A 22-year member of the Hillsdale Police
Department, a 16-member force that protects
and serves a community of approximately 8,000
people, including a college, Hephner said education has “opened my mind.”

At first, Hephner felt a bit out of place in the
classroom, often being the oldest student in
class. “But once I got into it and started and realized I could do the work... for me that was not
just an objective,” he said. “It’s not doing just the
minimum. ... There are frustrating moments,
but I know it was always on me. You just do
what you need to do.”

“It changed my thought process to see things in a
different manner,” he said. “I see more of the big
picture. It really assists you in dealing with things.
... Just being able to think like that and not just to
apply it, but to be able to share it, it’s helped.”

Hephner thought his educational goals were
complete with a bachelor’s degree when he met
Pat Palmer, SHU’s dean of the Graduate College, at a graduation reception. Palmer told him
Siena was starting a new master’s degree concentration in Homeland Security.
“That’s what a lot of our training is geared towards, things related to H