Cpl. Joey Cushman 

Joey was a member of St. Matthew Cumberland Presbyterian Church.  He was an exceptional person - dedicated to serving God through his personal, police, and community activities.  He believed that every individual should be given an opportunity to reach his/her fullest potential.  His legacy of enthusiastic spirit and community service will be celebrated by providing financial scholarships to the community.

This scholarship has been established to honor the memory of Corporal Joey Cushman of the Arlington Police Department, Arlington, Texas.  Corporal Cushman was shot and killed during a police training exercise on June 7, 2001.  He was 27 years old.

Joey graduated with honors from Southwest High School in Fort Worth in 1992, graduated from UTA in 1996 in the top 25 of his class with a Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice, and joined the Arlington Police Department later that year.  He was valedictorian of his academy class, was 1998 Rookie of the Year, and was promoted to the rank of Corporal the day before he was shot.

Joey had an innate instinct to help and serve others.  He was fluent in Spanish, served as a Spanish language interpreter for the police department, helped teach the first and only all Spanish-speaking Citizen's Police Academy in the country, was active in a myriad of neighborhood community programs and was awarded or earned many community service awards.  He was an avid supporter and leader participant for Special Olympics of Texas, Camp Anytown (a youth organization dedicated to fighting bias and racism in America), mentoring programs for elementary school children, and the Constructores Para Cristo program to build houses in Mexico.  He traveled and studied in Mexico, Peru, and Costa Rica.  He loved riding motorcycles and one of his proudest accomplishments was earning his private pilot's license.