Campus connections lead to law school and love

KOKOMO, Ind. - Connections made at Indiana University Kokomo prepared Sam Robinson for his future after graduation - both professionally and personally.

Robinson, from Camden, graduated with degrees in sociology and criminal justice, with a minor in psychology, in December 2025, and has been admitted to the IU Maurer School of Law in Bloomington with a full scholarship.

Professors and campus police officers guided him to opportunities including working as a campus cadet police officer; an internship with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF); serving as co-mentoring director for a program that pairs undergraduate students with incarcerated juveniles; and a job at a criminal defense law firm.

"In my Introduction to Criminal Justice Class, Kelly Fisher (senior lecturer in criminal justice) asked in our first class for us to tell her in detail what we want to do with our lives, and how we plan to get there," he said, adding that she recommended he apply for the campus police cadet program. He did a one-week mini academy before working as a police cadet on campus, then went to the IU Police Academy for 14 weeks the next summer.

"That was a fun experience," he said. "I got to connect with some gifted and smart individuals. It gave me more exposure to what the field was like. I enjoyed building a lot of connections working with the Kokomo officers."

One of those was an IU Police Academy graduate from Kokomo who had served as a federal agent with the ATF, who helped him secure an internship with the agency when he learned Robinson was interested in being a federal agent.

"That summer gave me a rarely seen window into what federal law enforcement looks like," he said. "You can read about it, but you can never really feel it without that hands-on experience. I saw what a federal agent's job looks like day to day."

He shadowed a different officer each day, witnessing jobs like drug interdiction, undercover buys, surveillance, evidence management, how cases are written up, how digital footprints are tracked, and more.

"I met with an intelligence analyst who was tracking cell phone pings to find out where a target was," he shared "I also saw the dispatchers who stay back and showed how they contribute to the investigation. It's the most exciting stuff I could ever tell you, but executed in the most boring way possible."

Undecided about law enforcement, he took a practice Law School Admission Test and did well. He mentioned his possible interest in law to Jamie Oslawski-Lopez, assistant professor of sociology, who introduced him to her husband, owner of a criminal defense firm in Indianapolis.

"When I talked to him, everything he said was great, and seeing what he did, I knew 100 percent that was the field I wanted to be in," he said, adding that he applied for a job with Lopez, with the understanding it would be until he starts law school during the summer.

Officers also connected him with Sarah Sarber, a law school graduate who is senior advisor to Chancellor Mark Canada, for her expertise in admissions and scholarships.

"I was kicking myself for waiting so long to decide on law school," he said. "As soon as I said something, it was all hands on deck trying to get me the help I needed."

His most important campus connection is personal, rather than professional.

One late evening at the campus police office, nursing student Karedis Araujo requested a courtesy escort to her car, and he volunteered. He noticed there were only two cars in the lot and remembered he'd written a parking ticket for one of them earlier in the evening.

"I kept thinking, please let her go to the black SUV, but it was her car," he said. "It was an actual ticket that cost her $25. I ended up messaging her a few days later to say sorry about the ticket, let's go out to dinner. She accepted and that was the start."

They both graduated in December, married after Christmas, and moved to Bloomington, where she accepted a job as an emergency room nurse.

"She comes home with better stories than I do now," he said. "I was working as a cop while she was studying, and I used to come home and share crazy stories. Now I sit behind a desk and she has the stories."

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