The 12th Biannual Utah Crime Justice Equity Student Conference, chaired by Antonette Gray, David Robles, Stephanie Hoffman, and Anthony J. Nocella II from the Salt Lake Community College Department of Criminal Justice, supported by Undergraduate Projects, Performances, Presentations & Research Celebration (UP3RC) and sponsored by over ten nonprofit organizations, happened again with huge success including having over 150 people in attendance including friends and families of the student presenters. The conference had three organizations table at the event, a keynote speaker, a large hall of student scholarly posters, pizza and juice for lunch, certificates to all presenters, certificates to all students participating in volunteering with Save the Kids from Incarceration, certificates to students who completed a SLCC community engaged course, recognizing students who presented at two other conferences, participating in Skills USA, and guest editing an issue in the peer-reviewed Peace Studies Journal, and certificates to students who won biannual criminal justice awards. It is rare friends and family have the opportunity see their friend or child in college conducting scholarship and research live, so friends and family members regularly give flowers and gifts to students after they present. This creative and powerful high impact practice scholarly and research based conference, which takes a lot of time and effort to organize, which is part of the chairs’ teaching, is like no other conference internationally.

This conference is rare for students because there is not many academic disciplinary focused student centered conferences in college internationally. Further, this conference regularly attracts students from other universities and colleges throughout Utah, such as, Utah State University, University of Utah, Westminster University, and Utah Valley University. This immersing experience allows students to present, conduct creative analytical scholarship, and have critical thinking discussions with others on many social issues and problems for a whole day – 9am to 5pm at the SLCC Larry Miller Campus. The Department of Criminal Justice’s goal by the Chairs of the conference is to foster students to become researchers, scholars, analytically and creatively course learning outcomes, and civilly engaged citizens promoting  a healthy and safe democracy.