Gregory Sly
Gregory SlyProfessorCriminal JusticeWorkforce, Career & Technical EducationFollowing a distinguished 30-year criminal justice career, Gregory Sly came to Western Nevada College to manage grants nearly a decade ago. But it didn’t take long for Sly to realize that his real calling was in the classroom. |
When WNC needed someone to oversee the criminal justice program in 2017, Sly embraced
the opportunity to invest in students as they try to find their place in the profession
that defined him. Sly has also taught criminal justice classes at Lake Tahoe Community
College and Truckee Meadows Community College. He enjoys the smaller class sizes at
WNC and the advantage of getting to know his students better, and vice versa. This
bond allows him to stay in touch with students after they graduate.
Many of his students thank him for believing in them. Sly isn’t shy about sharing
some of teaching secrets and interests away from WNC.
Q: What is your background and highlights before coming to WNC?
SLY: I was raised by a California Highway Patrol officer, and my dad retired from
the California Highway Patrol as a captain at the end of his career. Many of my family
members have entered the criminal justice system, and I was no different. So right
out of high school, I joined the United States Air Force, and I became an Air Force Law Enforcement Specialist (police officer).
I started my police work at age 19. Most of the time you don't get to start until
you're 21. This is the case in most states, cities or counties, but in the Air Force,
you can start younger. So, I was a cop at age 19, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. During
that time, I worked alongside the Fort Worth Police Department in Texas as an Air Force police officer and had
some great experiences for about four years.
After that, I returned to California and I went to work as a CHP officer for the California
Highway Patrol. I was stationed in the Bay Area, just south of San Francisco, and
had all kinds of experiences there and enjoyed that job, but soon determined that
probably that wasn't going to be the career for me specifically. So, I went back to
school at San Jose State University and I got my bachelor's degree.A bachelor's degree really opens up a lot of doors in the criminal justice system
for specialized work. When I graduated, I went back to my home county of El Dorado
County and became a probation officer in community supervision and juvenile detention.
I had many different experiences over the years, promoting through eight different
ranks. After 23 years in probation at the end of a 30-year career in criminal justice,
I retired as a chief probation officer.
Q: What led you to Western Nevada College?
SLY: When I retired, I was able to reside in Carson City full time and wanted to continue working because I retired rather young.
Having developed an expertise in grants, managing and writing grants during my career
in the criminal justice system, I asked WNC if it needed any help with grant management.
After being employed at WNC, I got to know Richard Finn, who ran the criminal justice
program here for 25 years. When I was running the juvenile detention center in South
Lake Tahoe, we recruited a lot of Richard’s students. In 2017, Richard came to me
and told me he was going to retire. He said the college wasn’t expecting this and
needed somebody to run the program. Richard asked me if I’d do it, and I said, “Absolutely.”
Now, here I am today as a full-time criminal justice instructor and program coordinator.
Q: Why do you like teaching at WNC?
SLY: I've been teaching since 2017 and I love every minute of it. I've been fortunate
enough to have taught at Lake Tahoe Community College, Truckee Meadows Community College,
and WNC is by far my favorite. There are a few reasons for that.
One is I find the students very interested in their careers. They want to know what
careers they should choose, what they need to learn, how to get there? What they are
going to do and what to expect when they get there? They're very career focused.
I enjoy helping them prepare for future careers in criminal justice, too. I like the
size of WNC in many instances. I'll have classrooms with maybe 12 students in the
classroom. That allows me to really get to know them and for them to really get to
know me. We work together as a team, moving them through college. I'm not the only
criminal justice instructor. There are a number of other very valuable instructors
we have here that share other experiences with them, and so we give them a great education,
but we get to know them, invest in them and help them achieve their goal. And then
see them do that.
I have a student right now who just graduated from UNR and just went into the academy,
so I stay in touch with them. Being at a smaller college with smaller classrooms allows
me to do that.
Another thing that's really good that I found with WNC is the staff; both the educators
and student services staff work very closely together. We’re all a team and we help
these students along the way.
WNC is kind of the full package as far as I'm concerned, a great place to start with
an interest in a criminal justice career, and I'm just happy to be a part of that.
Q: Was there a teacher or a class that inspired you to become an educator?SLY: During my criminal justice career, maybe the last 15 years of it, I was provided
opportunities to teach, participate in, develop and manage law enforcement and corrections
training programs.
I was a certified training manager for peace officers in California for over 10 years.
It wasn't really teaching college as much as it was teaching law enforcement officials
training and how to do the job and be certified in these kinds of things in academy settings. So, it really got me interested in teaching at that time.
It was a great transition over to actually teaching at the community college level
when I was retired and available to do that type of work.
Q: Why would students want to enroll in criminal justice classes?
SLY: Students tell me that they like my classes because they are a lot of fun. I really believe in what we're doing. I believe in them. I enjoy working
with them. They enjoy working with me. We have a lot of fun in our classes. We have
to deliver a certain amount of curriculum, but I want that curriculum to be delivered
in a way that keeps them awake, makes them excited, helps them learn, where they can
have fun and want to come to class.
I do that in a lot of different ways. My master's degree is in education curriculum
and instructional design, so I studied. I felt this was important enough that I actually
studied "how to teach" in graduate school. How do you best teach so that people can learn and want to learn?
And I deploy those teaching strategies as instructional deliveries in the classroom, and I call them little productions;
every time I come to a class, it's going to be a production.
There's an introduction, there's a reason why we're here. This is what we're going
to learn. And then there's how we're going to learn it. We're going to look at photos,
we're going to look at Internet content. We're going to look at videos. We're going
to talk about things. We're going to interchange ideas. We're going to debate things.
We're going to introduce it in a way that keeps it moving, keeps it interesting. We
can move through an hour and 15-minute class very quickly, keeping them interested.
And they learn a lot, but they learn because they're interested and they pay attention.
They take my classes because they enjoy them. Many times they tell me it's because
they know that I believe in them. If you invest in students and believe in them, that
means a lot to them.
Q: What is something unusual or unique that students don't know about you?
SLY: I would say that they don't know about my Pacific Crest Trail, long-distance
backpacking, but they probably do. I would say that they don't know about my love
for my dogs, but they probably do. The one thing that they probably don't know so
much about is that I love to cook.
When I was in high school, I worked at McDonald's and that was interesting. I fell
in love with cooking at McDonald's. And people say, “Well, that's kind of weird. What
are you cooking at McDonald’s?” But back in the day before automation, you know, you actually cooked at a McDonald's. So, when I was in high school, I
worked at McDonald's for three years and I fell in love with cooking.
I've practiced, I've studied, I've entered community competitions. I specialize in special breakfasts, pellet grilled and smoked dinners.
My favorite is baking from scratch. I'm really excited about the holidays coming up.
I'm going to make decorative cakes for the holidays.
View Gregory Sly's Class Schedule