One man at the Glasgow Police Department already knows the rigors and rewards involved with the FBI National Academy and soon another will join him. Lt. Col. Kent Keen has been selected to attend a 2010 session of the academy, an intensive 10-week program at Quantico, Va., which will make him the first active Glasgow police officer to ever participate.

Glasgow Police Chief Horace Johnson completed the national academy in 1986 while he was an assistant chief at the Western Kentucky University police department. He nominated Keen for the academy earlier this year and received word this week that Keen had been selected.

“To me it’s a great honor and it’s a humbling honor that I am the first chosen to go,” Keen said.

The academy brings together nearly 300 law enforcement officers from across the country and around the world to not only learn new techniques and trends in the law enforcement field from some of the best instructors in the FBI, but also to interact with each other and share ideas they can bring back to their departments. Officers come from every state — Kentucky will have three representatives in 2010 — and dozens of other countries.

Academy attendees must be nominated and go through a stringent selection process. Less than 10 percent of the U.S. law enforcement officers nominated are selected to attend the academy, Johnson said.

“It’s a great recognition,” he said. “It says to the community of Glasgow that you have people with the utmost respect for people like Lt. Col. Keen and members of the police department. It gives a flavor of integrity not only to Lt. Col. Keen but also the entire police department.”

Keen, 42, grew up in Allen County and graduated from Allen County-Scottsville High School before attending Eastern Kentucky University. In 1990, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in police administration and began as a Glasgow police officer a year later. He said his natural tendency is to always better himself and learn as much as he can.

So his promotion in July 2009 to lieutenant colonel and acceptance to the FBI academy should come as no surprise.

“Life is a giant progression. Growing up, they say college is where it’s at, you need to get your education. Well, I did that, and now I’m gaining this training and education. So it’s a progression and also not wanting to stay stagnant,” he said.

The FBI holds four sessions of the academy each year, and it is unknown which session Keen will attend. While he is excited about attending, he said the prospect of being away from home and loved ones for 10 weeks is a little daunting. Keen’s wife, Ava, teaches middle school language arts in Glasgow and said she is “very proud of him” and that “this accomplishment will take him many places in his career.”

In 2005, Ava Keen became the first National Board certified teacher at Glasgow Middle School and said she told Kent she sees his nomination to the national academy as similar in scope. And she hopes that the citizens of Glasgow are proud to have the community recognition as well.

“I hope they embrace that as a step forward for our community, and it shows how the city and the police department can grow,” she said.

As an educator, Ava Keen recognizes that Kent is determined to learn as much as he can and inspire others along the way.

“He values education. And an education is something that no one can ever take away from you,” she said.

The academy instructors teach courses on constitutional law, department management and forensics in addition to new trends in the law enforcement field. Johnson said his 1986 academy session included experts from Europe and the Caribbean speaking on terrorism and how the FBI projected it would one day affect the United States.