The HAPCOA Mentorship Program
HAPCOA reaches out to Latinos in higher education pursuing Criminal Justice as their major. Identifying that mentorship is the key to success. HAPCOA leads the way in aggressively recruiting Latinos to join their ranks in the Criminal Justice Profession.
In support of HAPCOA’s Vision, Mission, Values, and Goals, we created an honorary membership for a student majoring in Criminal Justice at accredited Universities. This honorary member will have the opportunity to experience how a professional organization made up of primarily Hispanic police commanders operates. He or she will also experience the art of networking within the police environment and be exposed to the HAPCOA national training conference.
The selected student will attend HAPCOA’s National Training Conference sponsored by the National HAPCOA and one of the local chapters. We believe in order to make this initiative a true and valuable experience, attendance at the national conference is a must. The networking that occurs and the career expo would be a tremendous opportunity for them and for HAPCOA.
The identified police department that wishes to participate will invite the student to all in-house training to include firearms and tactical training, to leadership and professional development.
Candidate Requirements
This is a one-year term. All candidates, for this initiative, must meet the following criteria: a Criminal Justice major; currently possess a 3.0 GPA or greater; be in good standing academically and morally; be in good standing with local and federal law enforcement. The interested candidates will provide a one page document identifying why they would like to participate in the program and a letter of recommendation by a faculty member.
HAPCOA National has adopted this program nationally and has designated funding for several other students to participate. We are looking at other funding sources as well. If you are interested in participating in this program as a sponsoring agency please contact Paul J. Chapa, Mentorship Initiative Chairman at 512-245-2805 or email at chapa@txstate.edu. Mr. Chapa will provide all interested parties with more information on the initiative as requested.