Officer Smith, School Resource Officer at Wadsworth High School spoke about his time in the military and his time as a police officer for the first of Wadsworth High School’s second-semester Career Speakers. This series consists of people of all types of occupations who come to present to students about what their job consists of. 

“I enlisted in the army right out of high school in August of 2012 [and] I started basic military training,” Smith said. “After I completed all my military training I was stationed [at] Fort Humphries in South Korea as an intelligence analyst.”

Smith traveled to many different places while in the service such as Kuwait, Iraq, and Japan.

“I joined the Kent State Police Academy in August of 2017,” Smith said.

Before Smith became a Student Resource Officer, he worked as an officer in the Wadsworth Police Force.

“I liked [working] nights most cause that’s when all the fun stuff happened,” Smith said.

Three years into his police career, he became the Student Resource Officer at Wadsworth High School and has held the title ever since.

“In January of 2021, I became the SRO [Student Resource Officer] of WHS,” Smith said. “Part of being the SRO consists of life counseling and teaching students about things such as ALICE.”

Smith works at the school to deal with anything consisting of protecting the students, yet he also does things with students in the community.

“My role [in] the high school is to be the first contact for a lot of kids growing up in the school district,” Smith said.

Smith has been a part of many programs in and outside the high school and has worked to make the community of Wadsworth a better place.

“We [Smith and Officer Shonk, SRO at Wadsworth Middle School] do things everywhere [such as] ‘Shop With A Cop,’ where we take underprivileged kids an opportunity to get some gifts on Christmas.”

The Career Speaker Series will continue through April 18, with speakers scattered throughout the upcoming spring months.