St. Helens Police Sgt. José Castilleja recently graduated from the FBI National Academy. (Kaelyn Cassidy/Columbia County Spotlight)

Inside St. Helens Police Sgt. José Castilleja’s office, there are two painted, cement bricks that serve as a reminder of what he regards as the “single, best experience” of his law enforcement career.

“I’ve experienced a lot of things in my law enforcement career, and went to a lot of great training, but this is more than training,” he said. “This is a really transformative experience.”

Castilleja, who has been with the St. Helens Police Department since 2007, recently graduated from the 294th session of the FBI National Academy — a 10-week program in Quantico, Virginia, that brings together law enforcement officers from all over the world to share best practices and participate in communication, leadership and wellness training.

The graduating class consisted of 239 officers from 28 U.S. states and 14 countries. Fewer than 1% of officers have the opportunity to attend the program.

For Castilleja, the experience not only made him a better officer, but a better person.

“It’s more than just leadership,” Castilleja said. “It really encompasses a lot of different topics and exposes you to a lot of different things. It rounds the person out quite a bit.”

Officers in the program spend 10 weeks taking classes that foster group discussion and free flowing exchange of ideas. One of Castilleja’s biggest takeaways was the importance of mental and physical wellness, and he said he felt honored to share information about the St. Helens Police Department’s new wellness policies with his classmates.

“St. Helens was actually able to share our wellness policy with these huge agencies,” he said. “That really made me feel proud of how future thinking St. Helens really is.”

Students at the academy are tasked with a physical challenge that they have to complete before the 10 weeks are up. In Castilleja’s case, the challenge was to swim at least 34 miles in total. By the end of the program, he was swimming about a mile a day, he said.

Castilleja was also involved in the agency’s international partnership program, where he met law enforcement professionals from other countries. His roommate throughout the program was from South Korea, and the two will be lifelong friends, Castilleja said.

“The international program itself is very strong, so it really connects you with other law enforcement executives from across the globe,” he said. “You can see how similar some things are, but also how very different some countries are.”

The academy helped Castilleja find areas for improvement, and he said he’s committed to becoming “more curious” about how to better assist his fellow officers. To him, that means not just inviting officers to come talk to him when they need something, but to actively seek those conversations out.

And now that he’s back, Castilleja is determined to share what he’s learned with the rest of the department.

“My goal is to share the knowledge that I have and that I’ve learned with my peers, with my direct reports, with the entire department as a whole to really keep it moving forward,” he said. “Because tomorrow’s leaders are already here.”