Date: December 2024
Cassandra Long graduated from Merrimack in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in criminology and criminal justice and earned her master’s degree in 2018. Six years later, Cassandra returned to campus for Merrimack’s Professional Development Retreat (PDR), to help students build connections and give career guidance.
She is currently a director for an opiate treatment program (OTP) in Saugus, Massachusetts, through Spectrum Health Systems. The OTP primarily focuses on methadone maintenance, which is a form of medicated-assisted treatment. She was promoted to director in May 2023, and is going on her third year working at the Saugus location, and her fifth year with Spectrum. She represented Spectrum at the PDR, as they believe in sharing their knowledge, and getting people to understand addiction services.
“I wanted somewhere that I could build a career and not just have a job, and that’s what I have with Spectrum,” she said. “You’re not just an employee, but you become [a] family…I get to watch [people] get to the highest points of their life… and I get to grow as a professional, [and] an individual.”
Cassandra had many experiences before finding her career at Spectrum. The transition from leaving her dream profession since kindergarten and finding her passion in human services is a story every college student should hear.
A key factor in changing her career path came from her experience at the PDR as a student,
“At that point, [I] really wanted to go to law school and I met with someone that completed law school, but wasn’t utilizing their law degree,” she said.
After this conversation, Cassandra started to consider leaving law school. She learned that the skills she had through her education and the PDR would help her in a variety of careers.
The pursuit of finding her career wasn’t what Cassandra imagined, from suffering a brain injury on the job, to dabbling in teaching, to working with jail inmates.
She got a job at the Office of Community Corrections (OCC) toward the end of 2020 through Spectrum, a third-party contract for the Essex County Sheriff’s Department. From there, Cassandra was placed in the Middleton Jail of Women in Transition in Salisbury and at the farm in Lawrence.
The experience was valuable, but Cassandra wanted to move on,
“A can of soda can [be turned] into a weapon. I can’t bring real silverware to work. Anything that has a twist off top. Different things like that you don’t think about until you’re in that environment,” she said.
From that point, she applied to the OTP and finally found a job she loved.
Going from a criminology degree to working in human services shows that students will never know where they end up. For students in Cassandra’s situation, she stresses to not panic and encourages students to take every opportunity that’s presented to them,
“There’s been some things where I was like, oh, I don’t wanna do this, but then I’ve gone and I’ve gotten so much out of it. You never know what opportunity is going to get you to where you are,” she said.
Cassandra looks forward to attending more PDRs in the future, as she still feels at home after seven years off campus. She also enjoyed giving back to the community the same way the women helped her at the PDR years ago, by interacting with students and using her experiences as advice for others.
