Peace officer graduation Friday

Twenty-five graduates of the Western Nevada State Peace Officer Academy will be honored on at 7 p.m. Friday in the Brewery Arts Center Performance Hall.

Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong will be guest speaker. Students in this year's class are from seven communities in western Nevada.

The academy is a 30-week, 33.5 credit program offered at Western Nevada Community College that includes a combination of classroom, practical application and physical training.

Cadets who complete the program are eligible to take the Peace Officer Standards and Training exam and can apply for positions in law enforcement that require Category I certification (police, sheriff, etc. ), Category II certification (bailiffs, fire investigators, juvenile probation, etc.) and Category III certification (corrections, jailers, etc.).

Members of the 2003 class have already been hired by the Carson City Sheriff's Department, the Nevada Highway Patrol and the Washoe Tribal Juvenile Probation Office. The program also fulfills requirements toward an associate's applied science degree in law enforcement.

The 2003 WNCC Academy graduates are:

CARSON CITY

Paula Andrews

Casey Andrews

Tara Coleman

Daniel Collier

Homer Dagdagan

Daniel Gonzales

Benjamin Leonard

John J. Leonard

Daniel Malone

Matthew Pearson

Meliah Peterson

Brandon Randall

Martha Tschetter

MINDEN

Joshua Carter

Jerome DelGiudice

INCLINE VILLAGE

Daman Yocum

FALLON

Autumn Goodin and Carl Smuda,

RENO

John C. Leonard

Ryan McDonald

Sean Shannon

Shellie Shannon

VIRGINIA CITY

John Pentelei-Molnar

WASHOE VALLEY

Tammy Hurst

Jeffrey May