OMG, LOL, BFF… the e-mail language of teenagers today is filled with acronyms that many adults don’t understand. But as part of an internship this summer, Keegan Wenner ’09 schooled special agents with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation in the lingo. He helped create online profiles of young teens, which the agents used to lure child sex predators.

“It was disturbing to see there are people sick enough to go after little girls and boys,” says Wenner, a Sociology major and Criminal Justice minor.

The junior observed as agents conducted online conversations with predators. As part of the internship, he also helped prepare cases, logged evidence and sat in on a police corruption trial. Wenner says he was able to apply skills learned in his criminology classes to the investigative work.

“I got to see the side of law enforcement that is not kicking down doors and running down bad guys,” Wenner says. “The special agents uphold the law with a kind of professionalism that can only be admired. I’m proud to have worked beside these people.”

About a third of McDaniel’s Sociology majors go into law enforcement, says Associate Professor of Sociology Debra Lemke. Wenner himself plans to become a police officer in either Baltimore or Philadelphia, and eventually become a detective specializing in homicide, drugs or Internet sex crimes.

“He is a very disciplined student,” says Wenner’s advisor Linda Semu, assistant professor of Sociology. “He is particular about his work and would make a good detective.”

BTW, OMG means oh my God, LOL is laugh out loud and BFF means best friend forever.