H.A.L.T.

Bio: My senior year of high school, I completed an internship with the Brown County, South Dakota Emergency Management office.  While enrolled at EKU, I also worked for the Madison County, Kentucky Emergency Management Agency/Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program for four years.  My senior year at EKU, I also worked for the Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium, a nationwide public safety training program of the United States Department of Homeland Security.  Following graduation from EKU in 2014 with my Bachelor of Science degree in Homeland Security, I began working as the State Planner for the South Dakota Department of Public Safety – Office of Emergency Management.

 

HALT Involvement: I was Events Coordinator for the second half of my freshman year at EKU, moving to the position of Secretary for my sophomore and junior years, and finally President for my senior year.  When I initially joined, HALT was a group of 4 or 5 students with some good ideas and desires, but little notoriety or resources to follow through on those ideas.  The following two years were spent creating a vision for how HALT should be and attempting to get the word out about the organization and attract new, active members.  Specifically in my senior year (2013-2014) is when HALT blossomed.  During this year, HALT underwent a major change in officers, and as a result, became much more organized and increased the membership twofold.  That year, HALT sponsored security tours of well-known facilities, internship opportunities, fundraisers (including the hit “Pie-a-Professor”), and organized guest speakers and career panels with highly respected professionals in the Homeland Security and Emergency Management fields providing their expertise.

 

Advice: Get involved in any way you can!  Volunteer for opportunities in the field that interests you, and network with as many people as you can.  Also be sure you’re talking with your professors after class and establishing relationships with them; they will be the ones writing letters of recommendation and serving as references for you.  Give them plenty of reasons to say good things about you!

Bio: Hi current/prospective HALT members! My name is Kayla Matola and I a fairly recent graduate in the HLS program – graduated in December 2014.  I currently work as a DoD contractor through the Homeland Defense & Security Information Analysis Center, located in Oak Ridge, TN.  I currently am responsible for providing analytical and scientific research in order to support DoD technology initiatives – particularly in one of our focus areas of Critical Infrastructure Protection. 

 

HALT Involvement: Before my graduation, I was a very active member of HALT.  I joined HALT my freshman year, but really became involved during my sophomore year after realizing that HALT was on the verge of failure.  I became Events Coordinator in 2012 and remained in that position until I was elected as Vice President and Alumni Chair in 2013. During that year, lots of focus was directed towards recruitment and involvement, which resulted in HALT meetings growing from 10-15 to 35-40 attendees.  Since then, HALT has gained a large interest with HLS students, and remains one of the largest student organizations in the College of Justice & Safety.  The advice that I would have for any HLS student or HALT member would be to get involved. I know it sounds cliché, but I definitely regret not being more involved during my freshman year of college. 

 

Advice: I advise any student to immerse yourself in something that even remotely piques your interest because involvement can definitely bring out your passions and strengths, in addition to helping you discover other people with similar interests.