Past Award Winners

2024 Scholarship Winners

1st place awards

  • Brianna Cook - From Stereotype, Freedom: Tracking the Impacts of Queer-Coding in Vampire Fiction
  • Christopher Hoffarth - French Neoclassical Visionary Architects and the Democratization of Architecture
  • W. Gennady Poehner - Negative Branding, Surveillance, and Industry Backlash Against Direct Action Radical Environmentalism
  • Mark A Kanelba - Propagating the American Dream: The Hegemonized Ideals that Constructed the American Suburb
  • Piotr Cetner - Concept to Prototype: The Development of a Wearable Haptic Display
  • Jennifer Marie Ames - Aroma and Cognition: A Look at Fragrance’s Influence on Memory
  • Kayla DeJesus, Ana Santos, Ava Allen, Leah Wolfe - Replication of Drawing as an Encoding Tool: Memorial Benefits in Younger and Older Adults
  • Connor Klaric - Investigating the Role of ASH1L in Erythropoiesis by Disruptions in the Gene Sequence
  • Abbey Helfer - Table-top Color Science Laboratory STEM Outreach

2nd place awards

  • William Groth - Approachable Method for Opto-Mechanical Alignment of a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer
  • IO Reid - Calibrating Site U1541 XRF Elemental Data Using Sediment Digests and ICP-MS
  • Connor Spence, Alexander Calamel, Gavin McAllister, Andrey Kravchenya, Robert Staheli,Taryn Liendecker - Building Biomedical Technology Today
  • Raina Lockwood - Introverts, Social Fears, and the Positive Psychological Impact of Passing Connections with Strangers
  • Joseph Leichtner - Private Prisons

3rd place awards

  • Jesse Dwaileebe - The Heart of Darkness Within the Colonial Gaze: Analyzing Miguel Gomes’ Tabu and Western Cinema’s Construction of the African Other
  • Angelo Romero - Myanmar Civil War, Causes and Effects
  • Kyle Kronenberger - Solitary Confinement in U.S. Prisons: Punitive Action and its Long-Term Mental and Physical Effects
  • Elizabeth Tackitt, Chianti Franz - Debunking Transphobia: Is This All They Have?
  • Anastasia Waite - Separating the Self from the Masses: How Habitual Social Media Use Affects Self-Identity Development in Those Under 25
  • Connor Klaric, Mara Waynick - A Transfer Readiness Course for all Students at MCC 
  • Natalie Stoner - From Legal Scholarship to Culture Wars: Misconceptions of Critical Race Theory and the Movement to Ban It
  • Gracia Solenyanu, Skye Gaudio, Annabelle Rheinwald - Stand By Your Stroop: Standing Enhances Cognitive Abilities
  • Ciara Reifenstein - Women Holding the Door for Men: The Potential of a Brief Interaction to Change Students’ Minds
  • Hassan Mohamed - Arazine’s Effects: Investigating Food intake in Male Fruit Flies (Drosophila melanogaster)
  • Milena Filipink - Using Remote Sensing and AI to classify Brownfields from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Disaster
  • Olivia Owens, Keirsten Simmons, Audrey Friga - Replication of Kemmelmeier and Winter 2008: Sowing Patriotism but Reaping Nationalism

Professor Matthew Hachee award

  • Mark A Kanelba - Propagating the American Dream: The Hegemonized Ideals that Constructed the American Suburb

2023 Scholarship Winners

1st place awards

  • Elizabeth Tackitt - To Defend the Hero’s Reward: Morality Toward Murder in Ancient Myths
  • Jason Sager - The Cost of War: The impact of the war in Ukraine on former Soviet Republics
  • Maxim Karasev, Piotr Cetner, Omar Nadeem - From Concept to Prototype: The Development of a Tilt-Rotor VTOL Drone
  • Paul Sofinski, Georges Karam, Elijah Otto, Samuel Overchenko - ENR 259 UAV/UGV
  • Rebecca Soriano - Neurobiology and Implicit Racial Bias: Reevaluating Brightline Capital Punishment Sentencing Within the Juvenile Court System

2nd place awards

  • Julia Gabalski - Early Mobilization of ICU Patients
  • Paola Muciño Dozier - Native Language Preservation
  • Chiara Giraldo - Synthesis and Biological Testing of Penicillin Derivatives: A Comparative Study
  • Mason Nusbickel, Nathan Dillenbeck, Jaden Reuter, Dennis Ribalko - UAV Rescue Mission
  • Jemeah Scott - Why We Must End Racial Capitalism
  • Christopher Hoffarth - Abolishing Retributive Sentencing: A Rehabilitative Alternative for System Beyond Repair
  • Rebecca Soriano - God the Mother and the Feminine Christ: Representations of the Madonna and Jesus as Divine Maternal Nurturers in Medieval and Renaissance Art 

3rd place awards

  • Isaiah Gonsalves - Expressing the Inner Self Image: The Emotional Range of Rembrandt, van Gogh, Picasso, and Condo’s Self-Portraits
  • Chiara Giraldo - Shifting Focus: Examining the Role of STEM Faculty Representation in Community College Student Success
  • Ana Maria Hernandez Socha - Changes In Neurotrophin and Receptor Dynamics as a Function of Adolescent Ethanol Exposure and Withdrawal

4th place awards

  • Christopher Hoffarth - From Votive to Verism: Engagement With the Viewer in the Eyes of Statues From Ancient Mesopotamia to The Late Roman Empire 

committee's choice award

  • Kidane Malik, Heaven Murphy, Anderson Allen - Fearless Creation: Celebrating the Art of the Unheard

2022 Scholarship Winners

1st place awards

  • Rubin Ortiz, Kristofer Hendrickson, and Aleria Krokhmalyuk - My College Consultant: Breaking Down Admissions Barriers for High-Achieving Low Income Students
  • Alex Groff, Olivia Schaefer, Tyshawn Searight, Michael McMaster - ENR 259 Drone Presentation
  • Kay Wilkoff - Vehicle Design Advancement with Solidworks
  • Bronwyn Wallace - Type 2 Diabetes, Inadequate Sleep, and Structural Racism: A Needless Health Crisis for Black and Latino Communities in the South Bronx
  • Daniel Heberle - Individualizing the Objectified: Diego Velazquez's Dwarf and Jester Portraits of Phiip IV's Court

2nd place awards

  • Daniel Heberle - The Spaces and Surfaces of Street Art: The Perception of Graffiti in the Time of Banksy
  • Taylor DuHart - Generation of Models to STudy the Role of H4K20me1-interacting Proteins in Human Erythropoeisis
  • Leanna Smith - Genetic Databases in the Development of Criminal Investigation
  • Abigail Dingman - The Mental Health Gap Action Programme: Aiding the Untreated
  • Martina Silvestre Sales - Have We Forgotten of how to be Social Without Social Media?
  • Ryan Horan - Digitizing Museum Collections for Public Access

3rd place awards

  • Mariama Wiliams - The Reality of Race
  • Lucas Eberhardt - The Genetics of Happiness
  • Jules Moore - Madonna, Mother, Mama: A Cultural and Christological Examination of the Pieta in Christian Art
  • Mia Le and Rasa Barmak - Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy
  • Baren Ritzenthaler - Urban Agriculture: A Sustainable Approach in the Fight Against Hunger

4th place awards

  • Elle Parrotta - Renaming MCC

2021 Scholarship Winners

1st Place Awards

  • Daniel Heberle—"Ave gratia plena Dominus tecum": The Progression of Perspective and Iconography in Italian Annunciation Painting from the Trecento to the Cinquecento
  • Melody Kohut, Abdul Latif, Ryan McVeigh, and Ricardo Ndoole—Modular Design Applied to Aerial and Terrestrial Robotic Systems
  • Ruben Ortiz—The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations: Black Male Students, Affluent Schools, and Downward Economic Mobility
  • Adrianna Robinson—Five Year Assessment of "Student Self-Tracking for Success in the Classroom"

2nd Place Awards

  • Maris Breaton—Juvenile Offenders and the U.S. Court System: Effects and One Possible Alternative
  • Anthony Burroughs—Optimizing Car Design Using SOLIDWORKS
  • Victoria Kremer—The Mind-Brain Identity Theory and Bats
  • Gillian Moore—Invisible Walls: Segregation in Monroe County

3rd Place Awards

  • Victoria Beach, Kelsi Biondolillo, Thomas Stearns, and Tanner Richardson—Mission: Unmanned Aerial and Ground Vehicle Navigation
  • Sherinne Cauwels, Heonmin Lee, Karen Lewis, Julia Babcock, and Ahilan Guruparan—Bridging the Digital Divide for Middle and High School Students: A Phi Theta Kappa Honors in Action Project
  • Daniel Heberle—Blood and Bayonets: The Third of May 1808 and Transforming the Romanticism of War
  • Sophia Jonasse—Rehabilitation and the Reduction of Prisons: Beginning the Re-Humanization Process

2020 Scholarship Winners

1st Place Awards

  • Justin Payne, Logan Hampton, and Ethan Hilbert—SUAS 2020 Competition
  • Devin Ward—Limiting Factors to Upward Mobility and Their Implications for Meritocracy in the United States
  • Chelsea Davis—Trauma, the Brain, and the Mind-Body Connection
  • Jacob Snell—The Actual Cost of the Dollar Menu: Empathy, Self-Interest, and the Exploitation of Meatpacking Workers

2nd Place Awards

  • Emily Byrnes—Thinking Small to Fight Big: Understanding Evolutionary Biology to Help Us Fight Disease
  • Brenna Chinappi and Nichole Wilkinson—The Impact of Student Government Leadership Positions on the Student Nurse and the Graduate Registered Nurse
  • Sherinne Cauwels—Intervening Based on Carbon Emissions Violating Human Rights
  • Autumn Ornt, Tristan Smathers, Collin Tumbiolo, and Oksana Vysochanska—Drone Capstone Project

3rd Place Awards

  • Misty Yarnall—The Villain Is the Hero of His Own Story
  • Lizette Porter, Michael Bennett, Bradley Pritchard, and Zeba Ellikka—Increasing Retention for Disadvantaged Students Through Peer-to-Peer Mentoring
  • Angelina Rezende—The Effects of Western Ideology on Policies Regarding Minorities
  • Chance Henry—The Importance of African-American Education in W.E.B. DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk
  • (tie) Chance Henry—Examining Power in Hamlet: The Tragedy of Claudius and the Future of America