Professor Wiliam Wakefield has been a faculty member in UNOs School of Criminology and Criminal Justice since 1974. He was awarded a Founders Award for his invaluable contribution in creating the London Study Abroad program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The award recognizes the outstanding effort Dr. Wakefield has devoted to the program for more than 45 years. Offered annually since its inception in 1972, the London Study Abroad trip gives students studying criminology and criminal justice a first-hand experience of how the criminal justice system in England compares and contrasts to the criminal justice system employed in the United States. While in England, students visit with constables and other officials from the London Metropolitan Police Force and hear lectures at New Scotland Yard. Students also tour maximum-security prisons and observe trials in both the Magistrates Court and in the Old Bailey Crown Court. The program is one of the longest standing of its kind in the United States and it is estimated that more than 3,500 students have participated in the program throughout the years.
The purpose of the William Wakefield London Student Support Fund was to establish a scholarship program for the benefit of students who needed financial aid to assist them in having the opportunity to travel abroad and expand their educational knowledge of the English Criminal Justice System.
A preference is given to those students who may not have the means to participate to experience the criminal justice system, country, or culture and people of Britain.
Dr. Wakefield (center) holding his Founder's Award