For 20 years, Students Solve ‘Murders’ at CSI Camp
Myzanhni Smith learns how to dust for fingerprints during the first week of Stockton University’s CSI Camp at its Galloway campus earlier in July. The camp, designed to introduce high schoolers to Criminal Justice career paths, celebrated its 20th year this summer.
Galloway, N.J. — Zoe Gandolfo has grown up listening to true crime stories with her dad.
“He listens to a lot of it, and he’s passed that down to me,” said the sophomore from Hudson County Schools of Technology. “I find it so interesting how the smallest mistakes can have a big effect and how things can go wrong. One piece of misplaced evidence can ruin a whole case.”
Last week at Stockton University, Gandolfo went from listening and reading about true crime stories to participating in one — sort of.
The Weehawken native took part in the university’s extremely popular CSI Camp, which is celebrating its 20th year this summer. The camp was founded by Criminal Justice professors Christine Tartaro and Joshua Duntley who run three week-long camps of about 30 students each. The duo know that the major is one of Stockton’s most in demand, and they wanted to capitalize on the surge of TV shows like “CSI” and its many spinoffs.
CSI camp students get a chance to meet Freya, Stockton University’s K-9 officer. During the camp, Stockton Police Chief Tracy Stuart talks to the students about Freya’s training methods in bomb detection.
“With the popularity of all of the crime shows there’s so much misinformation out there,” Tartaro said. “Students are coming to college having a very unrealistic idea of the careers and what is real and what isn’t. This camp helps students figure that out, and we help to guide them to what are more realistic career options.”
And the camp has grown in popularity over two decades, drawing students from all over the country, including Alaska, Oregon, Arizona and Kansas. Students from Mexico and Puerto Rico have also attended. Tartaro said one of the biggest things the camp does for students is help them to realize that unlike the TV shows, in the real world each different job is done by a different person.
“It’s not picking up the evidence at the crime scene, then analyzing it, then interviewing the witnesses. Those are all separate jobs. That’s just not how the field goes,” she said.
And that’s how the camp is run, Duntley said. Campers work as part of a team of investigators and professionals to solve a murder. Students are divided into groups with specific jobs from searching for evidence to taking photographs and video to lifting fingerprints. The campers are also exposed to the criminal justice system in the real world through tours of places like the Atlantic County Jail, the morgue at Shore Medical Center and a division-by-division look at the Atlantic City Police Department. The tour locations vary by camp based on agency availability.
After all the evidence is collected, the students build a narrative of how they believe the crime was committed and who they think did it. Then, they divide into defense and prosecution teams and end the week with a trial with a judge and a jury of local community members. After the trial, Tartaro and Duntley show the campers a video detailing exactly how the crime was committed so they can compare their findings to what really happened.
“We give them a crash course of the whole criminal justice process, from discovering the crime all the way through the final verdict in court,” Duntley said.
They even have students play the first responders who discover the “victim,” a role that Gandolfo really enjoyed.
“That was just such a fun experience,” she said. “We had to walk into the Experimental Theatre, which was pitch black, with only flashlights. It really opened my eyes to how it would be. It opened new career paths that I would like to look into now.”
Two CSI Camp students record observations after the discovery of a ‘dead body’ in the Stockton University Experimental Theatre.
Laila Greene loved what came after the discovery of the crime — the gathering of the evidence, especially fingerprinting.
“I love seeing my fingerprint,” the Westhampton resident said with a laugh. “I love finding out, ‘Who did this? Who did that? Why did they do that?’ As you start to gather more evidence, you start to see the pieces of the puzzle come together. And then eventually you come up with a story.”
Greene, who will be a senior at the Burlington County Institute of Technology in Medford, said that despite it just being a week, CSI Camp has piqued her interest in criminal justice and in Stockton.
“This gave me a little background to see if I definitely want to go here,” she said. “It let me see how the classrooms work and get a handle on what some of the professors are like.”
Tartaro realizes that the camp is a great opportunity to showcase Stockton’s campus. A few years ago, an analysis found that 13% of the students who attended the camp enrolled in the university, she said.
“I want them to come out of there with either a better idea of what they want to do or to have a bunch of things that they’ve decided they don’t want to do. I think that’s just as valuable,” Tartaro said. “But I also want them to have a good time and see what Stockton has to offer.”
The camp settled Olivia Kwashek’s college decision. The senior at Gloucester County Institute of Technology has been a fan of crime shows since she was 6 when she would watch YouTube clips of “Scared Straight” and cop shows with her dad. Her favorite crime show these days is “On Patrol Live.”
“I wanted to come here to make sure that forensics is what I really want to do,” said the West Deptford resident who wants to be a forensics investigator. “It’s helped me solidify that I want to go here and also the exact program I want to major in.”
-- Story by Mark Melhorn, photos by Abbigail Erbacher
