During November, the FBI will be visiting Tallahassee to recruit new agents. The FBI and EdVenture Partners have invited nine universities to participate in the FBI Collegiate Marketing & Recruitment Program, including Florida A&M.
Carol Motley, associate professor of marketing in the School of Business and Industry, said students will be working throughout the semester to generate an applicant pool for FBI careers.
“Students will be responsible for developing, implementing and measuring the effectiveness of their own unique marketing campaign,” Motley said.
Around 20 years ago, EdVenture Partners, an organization dedicated to developing innovative industry-education partnership programs, began the FBI Collegiate Marketing & Recruitment Program.
EdVenture Partners has created and managed over 600 campus programs in the U.S. Canada, Puerto Rico and Morocco. For the last two years, EVP/SBI campaigns have occurred at FAMU in the fall semesters.
“The FBI is interested in diversity and selected FAMU as a partner because of our diverse student body,” Motley said.
Disraeli Smith II, 22, graduate professional business administration student from Atlanta, said that is important that the FBI recruit minorities because of the types of domestic investigations.
“They do a lot of things here within the country and it’s important to them to have an understanding of the type people who they may investigate,” Smith said.
Although the campaign will target everyone who qualifies, its objective is to specifically target current FAMU students and alumni.
Motley said that it’s unsure of the number of applicants that will be selected for the program, but they do want to have many applicants.
“The objectives are to collect 30 resumes for the special agent position and 100 resumes for the physical scientist position,” Motley said.
According to the FBI Collegiate Marketing and Recruitment Program position descriptions, the FBI is looking to fill the physical scientist and special agent positions.
Requirements for a physical scientist are attaining a bachelor’s degree or higher in any discipline in biology, chemistry, forensic science or molecular biology. Duties include to reviewing and evaluating incoming evidence submissions and documents inventory.
Special agent duties require conducting sensitive national security investigations and enforcing over 300 federal statutes.
Requirements include applicants be between the ages of the 23 and 37, possess a four-year degree from a college or university from and accredited university, have three years of professional work experience, possess a valid driver’s license and be completely available for assignment anywhere in the FBI’s jurisdiction.
Once special agent candidates are fully screened they are also required to complete 20-week training at Quantico, Va. before been sworn in as FBI Special Agents.
“Having minorities in the full and getting a wide range of view points allows the FBI to use their judgment and make sure they provide proper resources and putting necessary resources in place to really be successful about understanding the cultures about the people they are investigating every day,” Smith said.