PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (May 12, 2022) – Today, just two days before he graduates from Prairie View A&M University, Chandler Bienek will be commissioned into the United States Marine Corps as a second lieutenant. Both going to college and entering the military are firsts in the Bienek family, and both are things for which Chandler feels pride and responsibility.
“I am truly grateful to be a first-generation college student because I feel like I am establishing a standard within my own family,” he said. “Also, it is a great feeling knowing that I am influencing my family and friends through my actions by attending a university.”
Bienek, an NROTC (Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps) student receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice with a minor in Naval Science, will take a 4.0 GPA with him into the Corps. A Houston native, Bienek said he initially found out about the NROTC program in high school, where he also was introduced to criminal justice.
“I took a couple of criminal justice classes in high school, and a friend’s father was in the DEA (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration), and he talked with me about the whole criminal justice thing,” said Bienek. “It really piqued my interest.”
Among his PVAMU highlights was participating in a research project on police misconduct called “Bad Apples and Their Barrels,” which was selected last year to be presented at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences’ annual conference. An outgrowth of his spring 2021 internship as a criminal justice research assistant, his project profiled officers charged with misconduct and the actions departments took against them.
Bienek’s career aspirations are associated with being “a member in a three-letter agency: FBI, DEA, ATF,” he said. But to him, the most intriguing area of criminal justice was corrections.
“Most people hear ‘corrections’ and think ‘straight to jail,’ ” Bienek said. “But there are a lot of aspects of corrections that go beyond jail, like treatment and rehabilitative programs.” Bienek credits Dr. Nabil Ouassini, an assistant professor in the Justice Studies Department of the College of Juvenile Justice, with broadening his understanding of the field.
“I had him as a professor, and he is a good guy,” Bienek said. “I had a lab every Wednesday that started at about 5 or 5:30 in the morning, where we spent about two hours discussing things related to the military or even the world. Dr. Ouassini came in for a couple of those and talked about criminal justice and world events.”
Bienek said being a member of PVAMU’s NROTC program gave him opportunities that aren’t normally afforded to a regular college student, such as having discussions with high-ranking corporate and military leaders, but said the university as a whole was flush with other “outstanding opportunities that will ultimately assist me in my future career as an officer in the Marine Corps and beyond.”
Bienek applied to a number of higher education institutions but said that Prairie View “was always at the top of my list, for two reasons: It is close to home, and it gave me a direct route to the military.” His four years at PVAMU have not disappointed.
“I feel welcomed at Prairie View,” he said. “It’s an amazing environment, and there is always something positive going on that will benefit you in the long run. And it’s in an area that is beautiful and breathtaking, which you really appreciate as a commuter.”
Recently married and eager to start a family, Bienek said that right now, “I am looking forward to leading Marines!” To others at Prairie View, he advised, “Assure your end goal is always in sight. Never let go of the reason or reasons you wanted to attend a university.”
Click here to view a complete listing of this semester’s notable graduates.
By Andrew Cohen
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