Loyola University student and police officer Sarah Goodwin always carries her Police Officer’s Bible with her. Wherever she goes, it comes with her.

Goodwin, mass communication junior, leads an extremely busy life. While a student and a police officer, she is also a wife and a professional massage therapist. Yet Goodwin credits all the success she has had in life to God.

“My faith is the most important thing to me,” she said. “I walk with God.”

Goodwin has been a police officer for about seven years. She trained as a reserve police officer with the Gretna Police Academy in 2000. It was something she found exciting, but she always wanted to be a journalist. Her husband Joey convinced her to apply to the police academy with him.

“We filled out the application, got accepted and I loved it,” Goodwin said.

She and her husband were the first married couple to graduate from the academy together. After her graduation, Goodwin went to have a massage at a local spa. She soon realized she was capable of doing what her masseuse was doing.

Goodwin attended the South Louisiana Institute of Massage and received her certification. Although a successful massage therapist, she stopped when she became busy with school and law enforcement.

Goodwin came to Loyola at a time when she wanted to figure out her goals in life. She loved being a police officer and massage therapist, but knew that’s not what she wanted to be forever. She went back to what she originally wanted to do: journalism. Goodwin has been an active officer with the university’s police department while attending classes. She said working at school helps defray the cost of her education.

“I came to Loyola because it was a good place. I was able to work and go to school,” Goodwin said.

University Police Chief Patrick Bailey said Goodwin has been able to persevere in her studies as well as carrying out her duties as a police officer.

“Officer Goodwin is dependable, energetic and dedicated in protecting the Loyola community,” Bailey said.

Jodi Forte, mass communication freshman, has had several classes with Goodwin and said she’s a model student, a good example to follow.

“For her to come back to school, I really admire her for that,” Forte said

Most of her classmates just know Goodwin as Sarah. Goodwin likes to keep her role as a university police officer out of the classroom.

“I have seen classmates do things, and I just want to go up to them and talk to them,” she said. “But I do that when I am out of the classroom, when I’m in uniform.”

An avid fan of American Idol and mother of four cats and a dog, Goodwin still wants more.

“There’s so many things I want do,” she said. “I want to be a novelist. I love to write. I would love to be a songwriter. I want so badly for my name to be in print. I want other people to read my work.”

Jauné Jackson can be reached at [email protected].