James Gustaw was born on June 25, 1984 and grew up in Patchogue, New York which is in Long Island. At 26 years old, Gustaw currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and is a Police Officer for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. He attended Bellport High School and graduated high school in June 2002. It is during high school, where James had a health class and a police officer came to discuss drinking and driving. It was the professionalism with which the officer carried himself and genuine outlook on his career that most impressed James. Becoming a police officer had always been a great career option for him but this experience cemented his decision in pursuing this field. With this career in mind, James decided to apply to John Jay College of Criminal Justice and was accepted. He had heard about John Jay College and its excellent reputation.

John Jay is not the typical college you dream of, where everyone lives on campus. It was a commuter school and James would have a 45 minute commute everyday on the Long Island Railroad to the City and then get on a Subway and take it to Columbus Circle. When James began college he was living with his grandmother in Valley Stream, NY. He can remember his first college semester and how he was not so sure if this was the college experience he was looking for. It felt like “the 13th grade!” Everyone would just go to class and then in between classes they would hang out in the cafeteria playing cards and dominos. Everyone had their own friends which they knew from their “borough” and making friends was hard at first. James decided to just pressed on and concentrate on his grades. He would get all his work done and felt like the days were real long but would go home and every night and have a home cooked meal ready. “Man I love my Grandma!” says James.

 

The first year would go on the same way but he had made a few good friends. Still it was mainly school, studies and traveling. On the weekends, James would always travel back to Patchogue to visit with friends. It was kind of weird for him though because all of his childhood friends were not really doing anything with themselves. Every time he went home it to visit, it felt like more of the same as he would witness many of his friends caught up in drugs and just partying their lives away. Today, James is proud to say that he has never used illicit drugs or even as much as smoked a cigarette for the fear of ending up like many of his childhood buddies. He credits his own focus, his upbringing and the destruction of his friends’ lives which he experienced firsthand. Not all of his friends ended up on drugs and he would return home visit these friends as often as he could. To this day, James and his close childhood friend Steve are still best friends and Jim is the godfather of Steve’s daughter.

 

One thing that Jim always participated in at John Jay, during his first two years, were the career fairs that were always offered in the beginning of December. He would often go to the tables and talk to all the different agencies. This gave him plenty of knowledge about different police departments, federal agencies, and what each of them had to offer.

 

One thing that stands for Jim about those first two years in college was how confused most of the students were about what they wanted to do with their lives. James remembers how he had always wanted to join the military because of his love for the United States which burned a desire to enlist. At one point, he participated in a semester of Air Force ROTC at Manhattan College. It is here that James would meet Fernando Bisono, his chapter brother. This desire led to James thinking he wanted to enlist in the Army right away and finish college later. That decision came to close real quick when his parents found out about it. A desire that was still there let him deciding that he wanted to join the Marine Corps as an Officer. He got accepted into their program and completed the training of the summer six week program. Good thing for James that there was no commitment because after he was finished with the program he had decided that we wanted to go ahead with the US Marshal’s COOP program that he already interviewed for. What stood out about the COOP program the US Marshal Service offered is that it was pretty much a paid internship with a job guaranteed at graduation. With this new goal in his sights, Jim put all of his efforts into getting into that program because he had decided that federal law enforcement was the career choice he longed for. The US Marshal’s COOP Program was one of the most beneficial programs out there with direct access to federal law enforcement. So he studied incredibly hard for his interview which he had to pass in order to be accepted. He dressed the part, knew the part and in the end was successful and got accepted into the program. All the experience that he had learned from the Marine Corps OCS program, Air Force ROTC, and at John Jay college in general is what he credits for his success.

 

James had several jobs during college and even throughout high school. These jobs taught him hard work, dedication, responsibility, and success. He worked as a car washer, at a deli, as a big brother mentor for numerous programs, at a homeless shelter, and even as a KFC server when times were rough. Those jobs shaped his work ethic and showed him the value of hard work. 

 

So how did James Gustaw end up as a cop in Vegas? After being accepted into the US Marshal COOP program, the federal government did what they do best which was make you wait, wait and wait some more. So frustration set in and James decided to have a backup plan in case US Marshals did not through by the time of graduation. The backup plan was testing for police departments on a regular basis. Some of the agencies and police departments at the Job Fairs in John Jay offered their written exams right there at the college and James would take advantage of this. James even started to watch COPS, the television show and research the departments presented on the show as well look up their benefits, salary and the quality of each department. Las Vegas had jumped to top of his list from the moment he looked them up. His mother has vacationed there often and he had decided to test for their department and see what happens. With nothing to lose and a possible vacation out of it since Vegas PD flies in possible applicants they recruit. As luck would have, the moment James had finished with all the Vegas Police Department exams; the US Marshals had contacted him. So he began working with the Marshals in Brooklyn in January 2006. Prior to accepting the position with the US Marshals, he had gone on a ride-along with the Las Vegas Police as well as the Suffolk County Police and had so much fun on those ride-alongs. It was after those ride-alongs that he completely fell in love with the idea of being in uniform, driving a patrol car, and to have more of a hands on shift where he got to help people throughout. The action was “awesome” to him and even when the job was calm, he still loved every minute of it. So when he started with the Marshals program, he was waiting to hear from the Vegas department and it all worked out perfect for him. Through the program he realized that he did not enjoy the work as a COOP student, nor did he feel he would enjoy the work as a Deputy Marshal as well. James received an email from his Las Vegas PD investigator congratulating him on being accepted to the academy. With that in hand, James put in his resignation the following week with the Marshal Service. This decision was not easy for him and till this day the hardest decision of his life. After almost four years living in Las Vegas as a police officer, James can honestly say that he “would not change my career for anything.” Recently, has tested for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but then resigned his application. He cannot imagine taking off his uniform at this point in his life. He always says, “A cop is a cop is a cop is a cop!” Currently, James has gone back to school since December 2008 to begin working on his Executive Masters Degree in Crisis and Emergency Management which shall be completed in December 2010. James prays that when he finishes Masters degree that he can begin to realize his goal of becoming an active alumnus and give back to Lambda Theta Phi even more.

 

When exactly did Lambda Theta Phi, Latin Fraternity Inc. come into James Gustaw’s life and as he puts it “change his life?” During the Fall semester of his sophomore year at John Jay, James was dating a girl who went to Cornell University. James went to visit his girlfriend at the time in Ithaca, where he was introduced to her best friend and her friend’s boyfriend at the time, Terrell Buckner. James would learn that Terrell is a brother of Lambda Theta Phi from Chi Chapter. In conversation, Terrell learned how James yearned to have more of a college life experience and possibly start a fraternity at John Jay College. Jim was fed up with the high school vibe going on at John Jay. At that point Terrell invited Jim to SUNY-Buffalo along with the already formed interest group at the time from Stony Brook; who today are the founding brothers from that school. James made it to Buffalo and had a blast. He got along great with the brothers, and even better with the interest group from Stony Brook. They were complete strangers at the time and yet he remember how much they all had in common and how easy it was to just hang out with them. Color, nationality, school, background made no difference to all of them. With that experience in hand, James saw an opportunity to learn about different cultures, make some of the best friends he has ever had, as well as the networking aspect that he could tap into for the rest of his life. He was sold. Little could he know how this first step was something that would end up helping shape his life.

 

James formed a strong interest group at John Jay. There were five guys in total who would go on to pledge for Lambda Theta Phi. One by one, they all dropped except for James. The Conquistadores from John Jay were on the national line in New Jersey. The line consisted of men from Chapters at Xi, Alpha, and Ramapo (now known as Beta Phi). James can remember how all of his Line Brothers thought he was going to drop. Yet they were wrong and till this day can all laugh about those experiences. As James puts it, “when I am committed to something, I do everything I can to get it and quitting is not an option.” He crossed in Spring 2004 as the sole Founding Brother of Lambda Theta Phi at John Jay College. After he crossed, he went on to party often and travel to New Jersey on a daily basis and upstate New York on a monthly basis. He had finally achieved college life experience that he sought. He began to recruit other quality men from John Jay College and talked Fernando into coming on a road trip. Fernando was sold and pledged with Iona's Gamma line, Michael Placido. Fernando would be James’ first line. The brothers at Iona and John Jay really tried hard to get a New York City Chapter off the ground. After Fernando crossed in Fall 2004, NYC brothers then got Alejandro LaTorre to pledge solo in Spring 2005. At John Jay, many attempts were made to try and bring Greeks on Campus but were all unsuccessful. So James, Fernando and Alejandro started a student organization called The Latina/o Unity Club. The club was very successful for the brothers and the fraternity. They threw many events, community services, socials, academic discussions, educational workshops and always had the constant support of alumni brothers and other undergraduate brothers from New Jersey.

 

James feels like he can keep talking all day about his college days and all the great times he had but would like to leave us all with one message: