|
|
Dr. Susan Ross
Associate Professor of Sociology
Chair, Criminal Justice Department
“Sociology spoke to me in ways that other disciplines didn’t, and while I knew I was tossing aside the safe practicality of business and accounting, I decided to follow my heart.”
|
|
Dr. Susan Ross became interested in society and human behavior at a young age. On a seventh-grade trip to New York City, the Manheim, Pa., native was struck by the social inequality between the homeless people and limousines which often occupied the same streets.
“Growing up in a small town, I had never seen such extremes in social inequality,” said Ross. “I didn’t know what sociology was at the time, but I knew that what I saw in New York interested me.”
Like many college students, Ross initially viewed college as a means-to-an-end and took up accounting and business as sure fire majors to finding a job. However, feeling very much like a round peg in a square business hole, she ventured into the world of the “undecided” in hopes of finding something that offered more personal satisfaction.
“Sociology spoke to me in ways that other disciplines didn’t, and while I knew I was tossing aside the safe practicality of business and accounting, I decided to follow my heart,” she said. This advice is often echoed in advising sessions as Ross discusses with students the pros and cons of pursuing sociology as a major.
The major in sociology paid off as Ross obtained a job in Harrisburg out of college working for the Pennsylvania District Attorney’s Association. Having worked on organizing child abuse investigation seminars for Pennsylvania’s police and prosecutors, Ross got interested in pursuing graduate work in family violence.
After earning a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire, including having worked two years in the interdisciplinary Family Violence Research Center, Ross joined the Lycoming faculty in 1998.
“After graduate school, I knew I wanted to teach at a college that focused on undergraduate education; the students here are taught by true professionals,” said Ross. “I’m so lucky to be working among so many talented faculty members.”
She teaches across the curriculum, contributing classes in sociology, criminal justice, and women’s and gender studies. She is also the faculty advisor for Lycoming’s chapter of Alpha Kappa Delta, the international sociology honor society and the chair of the committee on Undergraduate Education for the Eastern Sociological Society.
Ross pursues research projects that examine the intersection of American family life and other social institutions. Her edited book, “American Families Past and Present: Social Perspectives on Transformations,” was released in 2006. She recently co-authored “Deployed: How Reservists Bear the Burden of Iraq,” with Lycoming alumnus Michael Musheno.
The department of sociology-anthropology offers two tracks to meet student interests: the sociology-anthropology track, which allows for flexibility in the courses of study, and the human services track, an ideal major for students interested in pursuing a wide array of careers in the human services field.
“We want our sociology students to graduate with strong research skills that will be essential in both practical work settings and for those students who pursue graduate studies,” said Ross. “Many students intern at local facilities where they do qualitative interviews, assessments and program evaluations.”
Students also have the opportunity to attend the annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, where they participate in an undergraduate poster session. This opportunity allows the students to present their research to a professional audience.
As chair of the criminal justice department, Ross oversees a discipline that is quite unique at Lycoming.
“The criminal justice department here is highly interdisciplinary and emphasizes the development of strong critical thinking and analytical skills,” said Ross. “It is not all that common to find a criminal justice department at a liberal arts college, and we take great pride in offering a unique program strongly embedded within the tradition of a liberal arts education.”
Lycoming’s criminal justice department has been recognized by “Rugg’s Recommendations on the Colleges” as one of the top 25 programs in the country. Ross said that recent graduates of the department have gone on to work for the U.S. Department of Defense, state police departments in Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and in drug treatment facilities, to name just a few. Many graduates also work in adult and juvenile probation and parole and as legislative aids and research analysts.
As both the county seat for Lycoming County and home of a federal district, Williamsport is an ideal setting for pursuing a degree in criminal justice. Students intern at the county and federal court houses, public defender’s office, all local police departments, the county coroner’s office, county and federal prisons, as well as drug and alcohol facilities.
“We have a strong criminal justice faculty from a wide variety of backgrounds,” said Ross. “In addition to our full-time faculty members, we also have several highly skilled part-time faculty members who draw upon their years of experience working in the criminal justice system—federal and local—to enhance their courses.”
|
|
|
