Outstanding Senior Honors Thesis Award

The Honors College gives recognition to select students who have completed an outstanding Senior Honors Thesis. All majors are eligible for consideration.

Students can be nominated on behalf of a member of their defense committee by sending an email to Dr. Rikki Bettinger with a description of the creative project or research and its significance. The nomination should highlight the question or problem the thesis addresses, as well as its relative difficulty and its relative achievement. The language of the nomination should be in layman's terms insofar as possible. Should the thesis be selected, we will draw on this description when recognizing the students at the Honors College Medallion Ceremony. Please submit your nomination by May 1st.

Guenther Peace and Justice Award

Faculty mentors are invited to nominate undergraduate researchers for the Guenther Peace & Justice Award. This recognition goes to a student whose research offers new, perhaps radical, arguments and solutions to a longstanding critical issue. Eligible projects should have been completed during this academic year, and the undergraduate should have either successfully defended their senior honors thesis or have completed a research project with a written deliverable equivalent to two-semesters of rigorous study.

Nominated projects should delve into at least one of the following major concerns:

• Human rights as articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• International accountability, and justice for victims (the ICJ, ICC, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide)
• Racial, religious, and/or ethnic equity

Fundamentally, the award is intended to encourage deep research into, and future careers that address, the paramount ethical issues facing our global community today. Without accountability and responsibility to counter impunity, without justice and equity accessible to all, without the right for human beings to exist in peace regardless of race, color, or creed, the human community will never reach its full potential.

The award is in the amount of $1,000. The Honors College and the Office of Undergraduate Research and Major Awards are grateful to Dr. Irene Guenther for establishing and supporting this award.

Senior honors thesis candidates interested in being nominated for the Guenther Peace & Justice Award should consult with their thesis committee about being formally nominated for this recognition; student researchers should consult with their faculty research mentor. Nominations should come from the research mentor or thesis director and include a brief discussion of the achievement, rigor, and scope of the research and its fit for the award. Nominations and a draft of the thesis or written research deliverable should be sent to Dr. Rikki Bettinger by the deadline of May 1.