When Nikki Hamre ’95 was a senior, the criminal justice major planned to go to law school or the law enforcement academy until a professor of criminal justice, Jill Miller ’73, told her she thought she would be good at working with kids. Turns out it was pretty good advice.
As a student, Hamre, from Troy, Kan., toured Watkins Mill Park Camp School, part of the Missouri Division of Youth Services, and was hired there as a youth specialist two months after she graduated. She was named manager of the facility in 2004 after also working as group leader and assistant manager.
When Dr. Greg Lindsteadt, associate professor of criminal justice, contacted her about his students visiting the Watkins Mill facility, Hamre was happy to comply. The youth from her facility then visited Missouri Western.
“It inspires the kids to want to go to college,” she said.
“Our students don’t realize the impact they have on the youth,” Dr. Lindsteadt added. “They can play an incredible role as mentors.”
Dr. Lindsteadt noted that the Watkins Mill facility tour is an interesting experience for his students because it is different from other state correctional facilities.
The school is located by Watkins Mill State Park, so the 60 youth, both boys and girls, are able to take hikes, go rock climbing, caving or rappelling.
That appeals to Hamre, a self-proclaimed “adrenaline junkie” who didn’t want a desk job. (She and her husband, Shawn ’96, who played football at Missouri Western, keep a list of the Top 10 most dangerous hikes in the United States, and they have completed four of them.)
“The youth are always doing something different,” Hamre said. “We come to work and have fun with the kids, but we are teaching them skills they can use.”
Additionally, she said, youth learn about fun, legal activities that give them a natural high, and the activities build trust among the youth and staff.
“A lot of kids who come here have learned not to trust,” Hamre said, and the staff works to help them overcome that.
“This job has definitely taught me patience. When I started I wanted to solve the kids’ problems, and I learned they have to figure it out on their own.”