Michael Chandler
Michael Chandler
Class of 2008
Psychology major
When Michael Chandler was recruited to play baseball at Merrimack College, he was already pretty sure that he wanted to go into law enforcement some day. He chose to major in psychology to better understand different personalities. It was his very first professor of psychology at Merrimack, in fact, who helped him find a way to blend his love for law enforcement and psychology in a Directed Study, a course he designed himself that includes an internship so that he could work with the State Police the summer after his junior year.
“For this course, I read crime fiction to compare the popular notion of what police do with what really happens on a day-to-day basis at a police barracks. I also read law enforcement textbooks that covered the theories behind the psychology used in police work, and during my internship I saw how many of these theories actually were applied on the job. Meanwhile, my Directed Study internship introduced me to things like how troopers use computers on the job and work with the court system, and I even got to spend a day at the police academy to get a preview of State Police training. I feel really committed to becoming a state trooper now that I’ve experienced some of what goes on firsthand.”