UG Opportunities Student Award Winners
Celebrating our 2023-2024 Award Winners & Departmental Honors Students
2024 Winners
English Department Essay Award
“Unsettling Mixed Identities in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer”
Author: Emily Kim
Course: English 198A, Fall 2023
Instructor: Professor Caroline Streeter
Clara Rusk Hastings Scholarship for Excellence in the English 10 Series
Winner: Mallory Cooper
Recognizing ACES 2023 Participants:
DianaAboul-Hosn
Katarina Beches
Emmett Chan
David Egan
Jett Felder
Candace Fernandez
Leana Flores
Brianna Gonzalez Ulloa
Kate Green
Julianne Le
Rainer Lee
Avery Poznanski
Nawal Qadir
Delaiah Ramos
Kristel Santos
Victor Shi
Keertana Sreekumar
Michaela Trelby
Megan Vahdat
The Barbara Bellow Watson Shakespeare Essay Contest
Winner: Sofia Rossi, for an essay titled “All the world’s a stage: sexual performativity in The Winter’s Tale.”
Harold Dee Fox Memorial Scholarship for Outstanding Transfer Student Performance
Winner: Alexandra McCullough
David Wong Louie Memorial Creative Writing Prize
First Place: Delaiah Ramos
Second Place: James McCarron
The Olfet Agrama Prize for Creative Writing
First Place: Alex Bravo
The May Merrill Miller Award
First Place: Amelia Weintraub
Second Place: Selena Perez
The Ruth Brill Scholarship Award
First Place: Tavish Mohanti
Second Place: Sydney Imus
The Christopher Zyda Creative Writing Prize
First Place: Layth Handoush
First Place: Ella Lee
The Shirley Collier Prize
Winners:
David Egan
Mayah Hebeish
2023 Mary Alice Fortin Foundation Creative Writing Award
Eli Nachimson
The Fred and Edith Herman Memorial Prize from the Academy of American Poets
Winner: Eli Nachimson
Honorable Mention: Hero Jay
The Shirle Dorothy Robbins Creative Writing Award
First Place: Taylor Shoda
Second Place: Hanna Blair
2023 – 2024 Falling Leaves Prize
Milagro Jones
2024 – 2025 Falling Leaves Prize
Natalia Tapia
Department Honors
Rafael Aroustamian – Honors
Arushi Avachat – Highest Honors
Zoie Burt – Highest Honors
Emily Castillo – Highest Honors
Cory Chen – Highest Honors
Brenna Connell – Highest Honors
Reagen Day – Honors
David Egan – Highest Honors
Matthew Esarte – Honors
Ilea Farrall – Honors
Jasmine Gonzalez Barrera- Honors
Mayah Hebeish – Highest Honors
Emma Horio – Highest Honors
Milagro Jones – Honors
Emily Kim – Highest Honors
Layla Knowles – Highest Honors
Lauren Kogelman – Highest Honors
Ella Lee – Highest Honors
Malia Lefaoseu – Highest Honors
Jariah Moore – Highest Honors
Eli Nachimson – Honors
Kai Nikchevich – Honors
Austin Nguyen – Highest Honors
Zoe Pailes – Highest Honors
Daisy Quinones – Honors
Abigail Royster – Highest Honors
Taylor Shoda – Highest Honors
Mishal Imaan Syed – Highest Honors
Sarah “Nikki” Wolin – Highest Honors
Sonia Wong – Highest Honors
Ruby Yassen – Honors
We also want to congratulate David Fuchs, Alondra Padilla Mata, and Francesca Talavera. These students completed their theses in the spring and will receive their honors designations at Commencement.
Thompson Prize for Outstanding Senior Thesis
Emma Horio & Austin Nguyen
Writing Programs Awards
Peter Rotter First-Year Writing Prize
Elisa Di, “The Silent Symphony: Unveiling the Artistry of Punctuation in Prose” (Nom: Lisovsky; WP)
Max Davis-Housefield, “Proxima b and the Search for a Habitable World” (Also: First-Year) (Nom: Bricker, Clusters)
Peter Rotter Essay Prize
Zaid Bustami – “Wilshire Boulevard: A Tale of the Privileged and the Oppressed” (McIver; WP)
Teague Melville Writing Awards
Xie, Victor – “Embracing the Posthuman: Subverting Techno-Orientalism and Reclaiming Asian Futurity in Light from Uncommon Stars and Salt Fish Girl” (Nom: Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi, Asian Am Studies)
Catie Long, “Rewire, Reframe, Rewrite: Gender and Mechanicity in Thrilling Adventures_ and _Hidden Figures” (Nom: Sherrill; Eng)
Natalie Tsubamoto, CAR T Cell therapy: the future of cancer treatment? (Nom: Watson, WP)
Tom Davey Science Writing Prize
Nathan Brice, “The Edge of Memory” (Nom: Hartenberger, WP)