TSA employees last week received the certificates they earned in Homeland Security at LaGuardia Community College. Photo Courtesy of TSA.
Ten Transportation Security Administration employees assigned to John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports last week earned certificates of achievement after completing a special educational program in Homeland Security Studies.
The TSA Associates Program at LaGuardia Community College offers members of the TSA workforce who live in the area the opportunity to work toward a certificate of achievement in Homeland Security and/or associates degree in Homeland Security or a related field.
The program, which kicked off in the fall of 2010, aims to get the officers enrolled in a college program, many for the very first time. Today, 337 airports are eligible to participate in the program as of this upcoming spring with 110 classes scheduled to be delivered nationwide.
Recipients of the Certificate in Homeland Security reside in all five boroughs and include, from LaGuardia Airport: Joseph Graf, Tasha Kerr, Kamaldeep Pritsingh, Tobias Stallworth, Tori Thornton, Gilberto Valentin and Valmira Xhebexhia; and from JFK: Horace Anderson, Josefina Clarke and Tiesha Walker-Patterson.
A spokeswoman for the TSA told The Forum that the certificate is a pathway to introduce college-level classes to TSA employees who may not previously have had that opportunity, and allows the TSA employees/students to focus on a topic—Homeland Security—in their chosen field.
Not only does this program delve into topics such as intelligence analysis, security management, transportation security and border security, the spokeswoman continued, but it is an important personal step that could see several participants go beyond earning their certificates and eventually achieve an associate’s degree, and go beyond that to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
By Michael V. Cusenza
