Agents urge students of all backgrounds to weigh FBI careers

Two FBI agents came to the Saint Michael’s College campus Thursday morning and led an investigation by their student audience into possible career paths within the federal law enforcement agency.

FBI Supervisory Senior Resident Agent (SSRA) Anna Holden and Operational Support Technician (OST) Virginia “Ginny” Churchill were special guests of a criminology class at the invitation of Professor Krista Billingsley, who heads the College’s criminology program. The session was open to any interested students or community members, even those not in the class.

From the agents’ stories, which defied any preconceived notions about a “typical” background for an aspiring agent, listeners soon realized how varied the paths could be into such a career. For instance, Churchill said she was born and raised in Vermont and attended the University of Vermont, graduating in January 2021 with bachelor’s degrees in music performance and chemistry. She applied and earned admission into the FBI Honors Internship program in the spring of 2020.

OST Virginia “Ginny” Churchill talks to the class in Cheray 101 lecture hall Thursday as Agent Holden listens, far right. (photos by Kaylee Sayers ’23)

While the program would have been challenging even in relatively more “normal” times, Churchill said, she additionally found herself interning in Washington, D.C., in the midst of COVID-19, as well as amid fresh law enforcement tensions heightened by the Black Lives Matter movement.

Churchill said all that made her nervous about possibly entering federal law enforcement at such a time, but once she met the people at FBI headquarters, she breathed a “sigh of relief.” She found the FBI veterans she met to be strong true believers in the agency’s stated mission to “uphold the Constitution and protect the American people.”

When Agent Holden took her turn at describing a very different FBI career path, she affirmed Churchill’s enthusiasm for the FBI mission, calling the commitment that she and others feel “unconditional.” She said she found that agents she works among do not care about gender, race, sexual orientation, religion or migration status among their ranks so much as skill and professionalism, and “We do great things.”

Holden said she was born and raised in Poland and is fluent in Polish, Russian, Spanish, and English. She moved to the United States in her early 20s to pursue a career in education.

She described herself as a person who “constantly needs challenges,” and following the September 11 attacks in 2001, the FBI advertised a need for people with language skills.

That was the point, Holden said, that she knew that she wanted to be in law enforcement — but she did not want to wear a uniform, which made the FBI or the CIA her most appealing options. Encouraged by her husband, who is also a law enforcement officer, Holden applied to the FBI. It took a year for her to get into the FBI Academy, though she said it took some of her colleagues around three years to get in.

Holden stressed to students that military or criminology backgrounds are not necessarily more valuable to the FBI than an arts major when it comes time to entry to the academy. For instance, Holden’s language skills made her a valuable FBI asset when she did several undercover missions in Polish and Russian organized crime; not having an accent when speaking those languages in her investigations aided in the success of her missions. Logical analysis and critical thinking skills are more important to the FBI than a particular major, she said.

Agent Anna Holden takes her turn telling Thursday’s class about her FBI career.

Following her work fighting organized crime in Eurasia, Holden earned promotion to Supervisory Special Agent of the International Terrorism Operation Section, worked more 250 counter-terrorism operations in the United States, and achieved another promotion to Unit Chief of the Terrorist Financing Operation Section, where she worked on several international and domestic terrorism cases. Holden currently oversees all FBI operations happening in Vermont out of her Colchester office.

Churchill currently is working in counter-terrorism and will be starting an assignment to help train a new agent in Oklahoma next week that will last several weeks. Churchill emphasized to students that the FBI Honors Internship is specifically for students who are still in college, and that the internship is full-time in the summer and once students are back on campus, they are transferred to the field office where they go to school and continue to work part-time during the semester.

Both agents were very encouraging of Saint Michael’s students to apply to internships offered by the FBI. The biggest issue the Bureau has right now, Churchill said, is that aspiring agents or even members of the public do not have full enough awareness about the scope of the agency’s work. For example, she said, the FBI investigates hate crimes, but so few citizens know about it that, too often, unfortunately, hate crimes go unreported.