“FBI, open up!”
As your eyes scan the statement above, you may envision a group of men banging on your door, backs plastered with “FBI” in big white blocked letters, their muscles bulging from slamming a battering ram against the wood.
Olivia Munroe.
The name reads light and feminine, and her appearance is a few inches short of what you would imagine the height requirement for a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent to be. You may even ponder if this story was written about the right person; shouldn’t it be about someone similar to the tall, muscular and manly FBI agents you see on TV?
Most people making these assumptions do not realize what the FBI does day-to-day, but Munroe, a Coppell High School junior, has spent her life researching her future career.
“The FBI is not all going and chasing down criminals or fighting people,” Munroe said. “It’s more analytical and you need to use your brain. You need to be smart and not just have the physical aspects of being strong, tall and honestly, male.”
Munroe took control of her career goals by applying to the Summer FBI Teen Academy: a highly-selective FBI youth program, selecting only 30 teens ages 15-18.
However, even this action faced criticism.
“I was telling one of my friends that I had actually applied to [FBI Teen Academy] and they looked at me and they were like, ‘Really? You applied to it?’” Munroe said.
Despite doubts, her application, filled with passion and knowledge for the FBI, secured Munroe a spot in that 30, showing that neither her physical attributes nor stereotypes could stop her.
The program itself covers a variety of skills needed within the FBI through several presentations on topics including terrorism, cyber crime, public corruption, polygraph exams, evidence response, SWAT, and the day-to-day operations of a typical FBI office.
Participation within the FBI is not limited to teens either, with Dallas FBI offering various community outreach problems to bridge the divide between citizens and their protectors.
Specifically, the partnership between the Community Relations Unit at the FBI and locals has led to a host of crime prevention programs, enabling families to stay safe, businesses to protect themselves from hackers, schools and workplaces safeguard against violence, and all citizens to become alert to potential acts of terror and extremism.
For Munroe, the FBI’s program allowed her the opportunity to pursue her interests into a solid career but the root of her curiosity started before last summer’s events.
Dissecting the minds behind society’s evils, such as listening to true crime podcasts and reading history textbooks, became an enjoyable pastime for Munroe since middle school.
Coppell High School junior Ira Shankar is one of Munroe’s closest friends since middle school and noticed Munroe’s unique skill set in her everyday life.
“She can read people very well, and I would say she’s a pretty curious person,” Shankar said. “She likes to know and understand things in more detail.”
As she got older, Munroe’s past-time of listening to true crime podcasts and flipping through murder mysteries became legitimate research into careers where she can align her unique skill set.
“I started down the path looking at police officers,” Munroe said. “But what really didn’t interest me is that it wasn’t big enough. The police officers are amazing, but I wanted to do work on a larger scale which is what the FBI does. They work with child predators, serial killers, terrorists, which is what I wanted to work on rather than locally.”
Specifically, Munroe hopes to enter a position where she can study the mind.
“My goal in the FBI is to be a part of the Behavioral Analysis Unit, which is stationed in Quantico,” Munroe said. “They give insight based on the psychology and make a psychological profile where they can determine possibly race, age, gender, background, what the criminal might do next and who their victim type is.”
As Munroe continues to explore her passion within the FBI, she displays a unique characteristic that no stereotype can take away from her – a persistent spirit telling her anything is possible, even achieving a career individuals like you and I have only seen on TV.
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