Students and the WSC

As a small and congenial organization, the WSC welcomes student participation. Students can submit papers; help out with meetings; compete for scholarships; and enjoy meeting students, faculty, and practitioners from other places at our annual conference. In addition to encouraging student participation, the WSC helps support student involvement in a number of ways. Students are encouraged to take advantage of the following opportunities:

Miki Vohryzek-Bolden Student Paper Competition

About the Competition: Students are invited to compete in the Miki Vohryzek-Bolden Student Paper Competition sponsored by the WSC each year. Appropriate types of papers include, but are not limited to, policy analyses, original research, literature reviews, position papers, theoretical papers, and scholarly commentaries. Please note that papers co-authored by faculty will not be considered.

Eligibility: Any student currently enrolled full-time or part-time in an academic degree program at either the undergraduate or graduate level is eligible to submit a paper. Students from all majors are eligible, however, all entries must be related to criminology, criminal justice, or criminal law and society. Papers must not exceed 30 pages, including abstract, text, references, tables and figures, notes, etc. Papers exceeding this limit will not be considered. Papers must be double-spaced, typed in 12-point font on pages using one-inch margins, and conform to a standard format for the organization of papers and citations (e.g. APA, ASA, Bluebook). The WSC Awards Committee is responsible for evaluating papers meeting these requirements.

Award Prize: Students selected for this award will be recognized at the WSC’s annual conference; will receive a reimbursement of student conference fees (less membership dues); and will receive a cash award of between $125 and $250 for first place, depending on whether the paper was sole-authored or co-authored. Additionally, if the award recipient desires, the the best paper will be submitted for review to the journal of Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society. In rare circumstances, a cash award of up to $100 may be awarded to a second place paper. Please note that the cash award must be used to fund travel or hotel expenses for the award recipient to attend the WSC conference.  An award winner who does not attend the conference will not receive the cash stipend.

Deadline: A completed, final paper should be emailed to the chairperson of the Awards Committee, Dr. Alyssa Chamberlain, by 12:00 noon PST on Friday, October 7, 2022. Award winners will be notified in writing by December 2, 2022.

Please Note: The papers that students submit to compete in the Miki Vohryzek-Bolden Student Paper Competition need not be the same papers that they present at the conference. We recognize that conference presentations may be works in progress or may be a result of joint efforts with faculty mentors. In contrast, papers submitted for the Miki Vohryzek-Bolden Student Paper Competition must be completed papers that were written by a student (or co-authored by two or more students) without the assistance of faculty. Papers are welcome from students matriculated at any college or university anywhere in the world.

June Morrison Scholarship Fund

About the Travel Award: Using money raised from the Book Exhibit, the June Morrison Scholarship Fund provides supplemental funds to help defray the cost of student members’ participation at the annual meeting, provided that they are presenting papers at the conference. Typically, one or two awards are made to students attending the annual meeting of the WSC. The amount of the awards vary by year (usually between $200 and $300), depending on the sales of books at the Book Exhibit the prior year. Please note that this scholarship is not related to the Student Paper Competition. All students attending the annual meeting are encouraged to apply.

Eligibility: All students currently enrolled full-time or part-time in an academic degree program at either the undergraduate or graduate level are eligible to apply for this award, provided that they are presenting one or more papers at the annual conference. Conference registration and student membership dues must be paid prior to the scholarship being awarded.

How to Apply: Email the following information to the chairperson of the Awards Committee, Dr. Alyssa Chamberlain, by 12:00 noon PST on Friday, October 7, 2022. Award winners will be notified in writing by December 2, 2022.

Applicants for June Morrison Travel Awards must submit two documents:

  1. The student’s résumé or curriculum vitae; and
  2. A cover letter indicating that the student is applying for the travel award. This cover letter must contain all of the following information:
    1. the student’s full contact information, including name, address, phone number, and email address;
    2. the name of the student’s college or university, as well as the school or department housing the degree program in which the student is enrolled;
    3. whether the student is matriculated in a graduate or undergraduate degree program;
    4. the title of the student’s paper presentation;
    5. a brief explanation of how conference attendance will be valuable to the student’s career development (including how it will relate to future career plans);
    6. a summary of other funding sources available to the student, if any; and
    7. a brief summary of how the student’s presentation fits into his or her larger research trajectory (i.e., what, if any, are the student’s plans for the project that he or she plans to present at the conference, such as use in project, thesis, or dissertation; submission for publication to a specific journal; etc.).

Finally, to complete an application for June Morrison Travel Awards, each applicant must have a faculty sponsor from his or her college/university write an email message to the chairperson of the Awards Committee indicating the faculty member’s support of the student’s request for travel funds.

Deschenes Scholarship

The Elizabeth “Libby” Piper Deschenes Scholarship is no longer offered through the WSC.  The award is now offered to students matriculated in the M.S. program at the institution where Dr. Deschenes was a professor.

Student Social

Each year the WSC sponsors a social event, at which food is provided, to facilitate student members meeting with each other. See the conference schedule for the time and place.

Student Chapters

Benefits of Student Chapters: Students are encouraged to establish student chapters of the WSC at their colleges and universities. There are numerous advantages to having a student chapter. You can:

  • add your membership to a professional association to your résumé
  • network with other students, faculty, and practitioners in the WSC
  • connect with other students by viewing the schools with chapters and lists of students and academic interests
  • obtain up-to-date information about the WSC through the WSC newsletter and future publications of the WSC
  • obtain information about upcoming conferences, scholarships, travel opportunities, etc.
  • enjoy discounted registration fees at the annual conference
  • have an opportunity to participate in a student paper competition
  • present a paper at annual conference and possibly have it published in the newsletter the WSC, The Western Criminologist
  • apply for a June Morrison Student Travel Scholarship to help pay for conference attendance

How Can a WSC Student Chapter Be Started? Creating a WSC Student Chapter is easy. Here is what you need to do:

  1. find a faculty advisor;
  2. collect WSC student membership dues, which are $25 per person (WSC Student Chapters may add other dues if they wish); and
  3. submit an application containing the information below.
When you submit your application, please be sure to include:
    • a brief mission statement for your chapter;
    • the structure of your student leadership, such as chapter officers (e.g., President, Vice President, Treasurer, etc., as needed);
    • your school information, including school name, name of the department, the full mailing address of the department, and phone number of the department;
    • your Faculty Advisor’s information, including the name of the Faculty Advisor, his/her mailing address (if different from the school), his/her office phone number or extension, his/her e-mail address, and a list of his/her academic interests;
    • a list of student member information; for each student member, please provide the student’s name, address, e-mail, academic interests, and publications, if any; and
    • website information: the world wide web URL of either the chapter (if established) or the host department.

Send your application to:

Dr. Nicholas Perez
WSC Secretary
School of Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Emergency Management
California State University, Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Boulevard
Long Beach, CA 90840
(562) 985-4417