When 16-year-old Haidyn Gadd applied for a summer internship through the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, she initially wanted to work at her mom’s coffee shop.
But Tlingit and Haida’s Youth Employment Services program placed her somewhere else, somewhere she was really unfamiliar with – the Wrangell Police Department. She started the 8-week internship in June and it ended August 8. She said it was scary at first, but it turned out better than expected.
“I just like learning about investigations, crime cases and just being able to be a part of it,” Gadd said.
Gadd – a junior at Wrangell High School – said she didn’t know police officers could actually be nice, which was partly why she was nervous in the beginning.
“I didn’t know they were as friendly as they actually are for some reason,” she said. “Some of them can be intimidating. I was intimidated by some when I was younger, but now I see their job is friendlier than I thought.”
The internship involved shadowing and assisting all kinds of employees at the police department.
“I help a lot with the small things,” Gadd said. “I wrote down the laws. We’re about to make a video for micromobility and e-bikes, and we’re about to teach the kids.”
She helped research the state laws for micromobility devices in Wrangell, like e-bikes and e-scooters.
Law enforcement isn’t just policing
She said she doesn’t think she’ll go into a career as an officer, but she could do other similar jobs, like working in the fire department.
Her main interest though is psychology and that’s part of what she learned – and enjoyed the most – through the internship.
“I was more interested in becoming a therapist and just learning how to help people with their problems,” Gadd said. “That’s what I was first interested in. But now I kind of like the crime aspect.”
Eventually, Gadd also had the opportunity to learn more about self defense. She even was able to try out a taser for the first time during a department training.
“It’s helping me…talk to people easier.”
But she said there’s also a social aspect to the internship, which she enjoys.
“It’s helping me build up a lot of social interactions, and being able to talk to people easier,” Gadd said.
Wrangell Police Chief Gene Meek said the internship is something the department hopes to promote every summer because he found it valuable. He said he also would like to work with other high schoolers for on the job training.
“We want to make sure that people don’t have anxiety when they come to see us, that could prevent them from coming to see us,” he said. “So this is not just a great learning opportunity for her, but it also is another step zone in becoming more engaging with the community.”
He said even if Gadd doesn’t go into criminal justice work, she can still take the skills she learned during the internship and at the very least protect herself and apply them to other parts of life.
Gadd said she’s still not sure what she’ll do after high school. But she has two more years until she graduates.
