FBI live was "thrilling to see"

Gutierez: A girl with a dream to become an FBI agent – and who is inspired a little by The Blacklist

 By CHAMELY GUTIEREZ

BHSB Journalism Student

Two FBI agents were stood outside the building I live in, their badges out for all to see. They were looking for someone. As I watched, I felt a rush through my body. This was thrilling for me to see. This was the job for me.
Ever since that day – I had gone out to get ice cream – I have wanted to be an FBI agent. Today I watch a show called The Blacklist. It’s about a criminal who is an informant for the FBI.

In one episode of the show, an FBI agent has to work with the most wanted criminal on the FBI list. That criminal helps the FBI capture many different types of criminals around the world. The FBI would have never caught them without his help. I would like to be the FBI agent Elizabeth Keen from the show – but in real life. This is because I would love to feel the rush that those actors might feel while playing the role of an FBI agent. In my case it would be different because this is what I want to be.

Even though this and other detective shows are fiction, they give an idea of what an investigator or FBI agent does.

When I graduate high school I want to go to “John Jay College of Criminal Justice” because you can get the best criminal justice education on the planet.

In order to become a FBI agent you have to be between the ages of 23 and 37, and have a bachelor’s degree. An FBI agent’s starting salary is $43,441 per year.

When I become an FBI agent, I would like to specialize in murder cases. I would make it my priority to catch people who take others’ lives for no reason.

I would also want to work on cases that involve drugs. I would want to close drugs cartels so that the streets can be safer, and people stop dying from drug overdoses.

Sadly, there is no shortage of work. In the breakdown of violent crime in New York, murder was up from 333 in 2014 to 352 in 2015. Sexual assault went up from 1,070 in 2014 to 2,244 in 2015. The only bright spot was that non-violent crimes went down from 135,747 in 2014 to 129,860 in 2015.

Chamely Gutierez is Dominican, and came to New York when she was three years old. It was hard for her mother because she was working and raising two girls on her own. Chamely is proud she is still going to school and, even though she says she makes mistakes, she is confident she is still growing.