MIAGE Students Featured on KSL News
Caleb Larkin, Chelsea Joliet, Deba Masterson, Mike Young, Morgan Shepherd, and Tyson Todd represented MIAGE in the annual live-streamed event at the SJ Quinney College of Law. This year, the event was also covered by two professional news teams.
If you were watching the news on Friday, April 7, you would have seen Deba Masterson
and Morgan Shepherd participate in a live-streamed counterterrorism simulation featuring
their decision process regarding how to combat a terrorist who hijacked a plane bound
for Atlanta, Georgia. Read and watch the news article here.
With attacks tragically occurring across the world on a daily basis, it is imperative
for leaders to establish prevention mechanisms and prepare processes for responding
quickly to threats and attacks. MIAGE students who participate in the Perspectives
of Counter-Terrorism class can receive this type of training and experience while
participating in four mini simulations and one live-broadcasted final simulation.
Students study legal, geopolitical, and policy-related aspects of terrorism to prepare
them for the simulations. In the simulations, they must demonstrate skills such as
articulation, reasoning, teamwork, and information management. The final simulation
for the class this semester was four hours long and included terrorist events such
as a hijacked plane, cyber-attacks, and a university protest shooting.
MIAGE student, Caleb Larkin, shared his experience, "The simulations are a good test
of how real events play out in a high-stress environment. Often we have to make decisions
that are impossible to perceive the consequences. Still, we learned to take more,
if not all, perspectives into account and weight the cost and benefits of each decision
or indecision. The course certainly helped me see the complexities of counterterrorism
and the required skills to pursue a career in counterterrorism."
Another MIAGE student, Morgan Shepherd, explained one of the significant benefits
of this class, "in this class you are allowed to receive constructive feedback while
learning to manage large amounts of data, speak publicly and professionally, deal
with stress, and make very difficult decisions in a safe environment."
During the Spring 2017 semester, MIAGE students Caleb Larkin, Chelsea Joliet, Deba
Masterson, Mike Young, Morgan Shepherd, and Tyson Todd all completed the rigorous
live-streamed counterterrorism simulation. Another MIAGE student, Chelsea Winslow,
was a member of the Simulation Design Team and helped design the semester student
experience and final simulation.
Congratulations to all of them for their hard work and participation!