It's not often that professors get the appreciation that they deserve. Maybe a nice card or gift certificate over the winter holidays but certainly never anything extravagant as what Natalie Wisdom and her study group decided to do for Criminology and Criminal Justice Professor Eric Williams.
Wisdom, a senior in the department of criminology and criminal justice studies, was in Williams' CCJS 404 Constitutional Law class, and after hearing his lecture on the Supreme Court Justices, she decided to procure a meeting with a Justice for Williams.
Wisdom and the other three members of her Constitutional Law study group--Teddy Seiberth, Alma Maciel, and Jacquelin Fazzio--all wanted to do something special for Professor Williams, who they say is "a great professor and one they all greatly admired and wanted to thank in an unusual way." Wisdom wrote to all nine Supreme Court Justices and Justice Sonia Sotomayor agreed to meet with them.
The group of five traveled over spring break to the nation's capitol. Wisdom recounted her experience this week:
"Its hard to sum up what it feels like to meet a Justice of the United States Supreme Court. I found the experience completely unbelievable. I was taken aback at how genuine Justice Sotomayor was. The fact that she made time to meet with us during the Health Care week, spent time getting to know us and answering our questions, showed me she truly cares about students and our experience at the Court. The whole thing seems unreal."