Undergraduate Student Spotlight: Emma Sharp

October 30, 2024

Emma Sharp is a Senior at Michigan State University studying Criminal Justice with a minor in Law, Justice and Public Policy.

 

Growing up in southwest England, Emma Sharp played Cricket on a local team. Her interest in the game allowed Sharp to travel to another continent with her team to compete in South Africa. When the COVID-19 pandemic halted sports across the globe, Sharp turned to watching documentaries and reading books on criminal justice to pass the time.

While reading Byran Stevenson's Just Mercy, Sharp realized she wanted to pursue a career in the Criminal Justice system. Confident in her direction, she began researching the best Criminal Justice programs across the globe. She found the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University while looking into programs and decided it was the best program for her. Sharp moved to the United States on her own at 18 years old.

Having never visited Michigan before her move, Sharp’s first time stepping foot onto campus was to attend a class at MSU. There was also a bit of culture shock. “It was all of the little things that took a while to get used to. Things like driving on the opposite side of the road and just how large the country is” Sharp said.

In addition to her studies, Sharp is active in multiple student organizations, including the MSU Field Hockey Club, MSU Cold Case Unit, and Volunteers with PIRGIM. She has also interned with the Attorney General Criminal Investigations Division in Lansing, an internship she discovered through Tim Homberg, the School of Criminal Justice’s Career Placement Specialist.

Sharp says her favorite part of attending MSU has been all of the opportunities available to students. She has taken advantage of these opportunities by joining various student groups, conducting research with faculty, and participating in the Inside Out Program. She also says that the community of people in the School made moving to another country much easier.

In her free time, Sharp still enjoys watching documentaries and reading. She also enjoys watching and playing soccer, football, basketball, and rugby. Her advice for current students studying Criminal Justice is to discover and pursue the many opportunities available to students at MSU.