{"id":30262,"date":"2014-12-16T15:03:30","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T20:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/2014\/12\/16\/she-examines-and-explores-criminal-justice\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T16:38:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:38:52","slug":"she-examines-and-explores-criminal-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2014\/12\/16\/she-examines-and-explores-criminal-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"She Examines and Explores Criminal Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_10240\" style=\"width: 198px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2014\/12\/Magdalena-Suarez-Shannon-newsroom.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10240\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10240 \" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2014\/12\/Magdalena-Suarez-Shannon-newsroom-188x300.jpg\" alt=\"Magdalena Suarez Shannon\" width=\"188\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-10240\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Magdalena Suarez-Shannon<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Lessons in criminal justice came early to NECC Professor Magdalena Suarez-Shannon whose childhood soundtrack was of gunfire in the streets of her native Cuba.<\/p>\n<p>Suarez-Shannon was just a little girl when her family fled Cuba when, she says, there was a complete deterioration of government and laws under Fidel Castro.<\/p>\n<p>The Portsmouth, NH, resident brings this not-so-distant history and all its implications and complications into her Northern Essex classes where criminal justice and its relevance in today\u2019s society is examined and explored.<\/p>\n<p>Losing her home and her homeland to unlawfulness made a deep impression on the young Magdalena whose uncle was a police officer of considerable rank when he was arrested by the revolutionaries and barely spared the firing squad.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to sharing her living history with her students she carries her many years as a student which she considers her first, formidable career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is through trial and error and blood, sweat, and tears that we forge the path of our future life. Being a student is a time of reflection, anticipation, and speculation,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>As an educator, she says. she feels fulfilled when students are engaged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen students transition from indifference to enthusiasm in any of the courses I teach I feel that I have succeeded,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Suarez-Shannon, who holds a bachelor\u2019s degree from the University of Maryland, a master\u2019s degree from Harvard University, and a Juris Doctorate degree from Suffolk University, says she was drawn to the field of criminal justice because it \u201cchanges with time\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho could have guessed that criminal justice programs would, one day, need to offer comprehensive classes in combating international and home grown terrorism?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to coming to NECC four years ago, she was the director of the Outreach Center at Harvard University for eight years. She developed and led the program, which is still used today, to familiarize Boston and Cambridge youth with the college environment.<\/p>\n<p>Northern Essex offers a certificate in law enforcement and an associate degree in criminal justice.\u00a0 To learn more,\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.necc.mass.edu\/academics\/courses-programs\/areas\/criminal-justice\/\">visit the Criminal Justice Program on the website.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lessons in criminal justice came early to NECC Professor Magdalena Suarez-Shannon whose childhood soundtrack was of gunfire in the streets of her native Cuba. Suarez-Shannon was just a little girl [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":30001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>She Examines and Explores Criminal Justice - NECC News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2014\/12\/16\/she-examines-and-explores-criminal-justice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"She Examines and Explores Criminal Justice - NECC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lessons in criminal justice came early to NECC Professor Magdalena Suarez-Shannon whose childhood soundtrack was of gunfire in the streets of her native Cuba. 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