Following the departure of one of its officers, the Johnson State College Public Safety office searched for a new full time officer and found that person within their existing staff.

After months of being a part-time officer, Maxwell Post has been hired as the new full-time officer. “As a Public Safety Officer, I started part time in October, and full time in February,” said Post.

A native of Richmond, Virginia, Post is an alumnus of Johnson State College. He attended from 2008 to 2011, and graduated with a degree in outdoor education and a minor in business.

“My family founded Vermont, down in Windsor and Post Mills,” said Post, “so I’ve been coming to Vermont my whole life, tracing gravestones and such.”

It was the natural beauty of the state that brought him back for school — that, and the outdoor education program. After a few friends from high school gave JSC a good review, he decided to look into it more.

“I looked into different majors; saw they had outdoor education and business that was a perfect fit for me,” said Post. “I looked at nine schools, and decided I only wanted to apply to one. That was Johnson.”

In addition to being a public safety officer, Post is an adjunct instructor at JSC, and teaches whitewater kayaking, river kayaking, and coastal kayaking, in addition to a new course: stand up paddle-boarding.

Of all the courses that Post teaches at JSC, the one he likes the most is the whitewater kayaking class, because “that’s kind of my favorite niche of kayaking. I am comfortable running any river around here, and I love sharing that with everyone else. From little riffles to huge rapids, I love to share it as much as people want to get into kayaking.”

Although Post has only been teaching at JSC since 2015, he has been an instructor with both Umiak Outdoor Outfitters and the American Canoe Association since 2008.

“I was working as a program director at Umiak Outdoor Outfitters, in Stowe, and Karen Uhlendorf called me and said, ‘Hey, we need a kayak instructor for the kayaking classes. Mark Moore is stepping down.’ I said, ‘Sure, absolutely. I’d love to help.’ So I came back for that,”’ said Post.

In the midst of all the teaching and officer duties, Post plans on going back to school to get a doctorate in physical therapy.

“Hopefully in 2017, so I wanted to further network myself into the Johnson State College community as to have a great reference so that I could get accepted to several universities, as well as get the best graduate student job at the educational institution I pick,” said Post.

“My wife is also going for a masters in occupational therapy, and our lifelong goal is to open up our own outpatient clinic together, to help the community get back to work with occupational therapy, and back to moving health with physical therapy,” said Post. “We’ll probably end up working in a hospital for 10 years before we open up our own practice, to get a lot of experience, but that’s the plan.”

In his spare time, Post likes “paddling, backcountry skiing via [AT, Tele, and splitboard], Skiing/Riding Terrain Parks, rock climbing, hiking, meditating, and yoga,” in addition to building snowboards.

The best place for all of these activities, according to Post, is Smugglers’ Notch. “Smugglers’ Notch probably would be the most versatile for all the things I do,” said Post. “I go skiing there, rock climbing there, ice climbing there; I’ve been kayaking down Brewster Gorge and Bingham Falls.”

While at JSC, in his public safety capacity, Post says his goal is to be a liaison between the students and the college. “To provide a safe environment for students to learn, grow, and succeed,” said Post. “I am excited to get to know more students, and help them in any way I can.”