Each semester, the University Honors Program recognizes outstanding capstone projects in seven categories: Arts, Community Engagement, Education, Health, Humanities, Social Science, and STEM. To graduate with Full University Honors, students must complete a Capstone project supervised by a faculty mentor. Students completing Associate University Honors have the option to complete a Capstone. After working with their students throughout the semester, or sometimes longer, faculty mentors are asked for nominations for Outstanding Capstone Awards.
The spring 2024 Outstanding Capstone Award Recipients are:
Gabby Gozdecki, Arts Category: “Clytemnestra: An Exploration of Process”
Gabby’s faculty mentor, Dr. Emily Vitrano said, “Gabby’s work is nothing short of exemplary. Combining research and performance, Gabby has created a character fully embodied, emotionally available, and wholly human; no easy feat, even for the most experienced of actors. Gabby deserves this award not only for the final product, but for her dedication to the process, something we as educators strive to instill in our students. For Gabby, it is about the journey, not the destination.”
Jamie Ward, Community Engagement category: “Brain Game: Neuroprotective education and cognitive training for aging adults”
Jamie’s faculty mentor, Dr. Jamie Mayer said, “Jamie has grown into a leader throughout this process and has earned the respect of not only the aging population with whom she is working, but also her own peers who have volunteered to assist with the program, and the staff at the retirement community. This is a program which I believe will have the momentum to continue long after Jamie’s capstone is completed, thus positively impacting long-term cognitive function and quality of life for an ever-expanding group of local, aging adults!”
Darcy Douglass, Education category: “Toilet Training and Teaching Self-Initiations to Children with Autism who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication”
Darcy’s faculty mentor, Dr. Natalie Andzik said, “Throughout our project, Darcy consistently demonstrated exceptional qualities that set her apart as a dedicated and invaluable team member. She was incredibly friendly with the staff, kind to the student participants, and reliable to our research team. One of Darcy’s most notable attributes is her exceptional work ethic. From the beginning, Darcy consistently put in the time and effort necessary to produce the best work possible. She was always early to take data and came prepared and organized to every lab meeting.”
Adelaide Parr, Health category: “A Multi-State Look into Early Intervention Speech-Language Pathologists’ Confidence Identifying and Diagnosing Autism”
Adelaide’s faculty mentor, Dr. Allison Gladfelter said, “Ms. Parr has led this project every step of the way. She first wrote a successful IRB, drafted a proposal, actively recruited nearly 300 study participants, secured EYE grant funding for participant incentives, analyzed her data and statistical analyses, synthesized information across a broad range of empirical literature, submitted an accepted presentation proposal to present her research at the Symposium for Research in Child Language Disorders in Madison, Wisconsin this June, and finally wrote one of the best Capstone papers I have ever read, even compared to some doctoral dissertations that I’ve encountered! Ms. Parr has demonstrated the necessary intellectual curiosity, work ethic, and critical thinking required to meet every research milestone and deadline necessary to complete such a polished, professional research project.”
Jonah Parra, Humanities category: “An Examination of Gen Z reactions to Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” Movie (2023)”
Jonah’s faculty mentor, Dr. Laura Vazquez said, “This student was very instrumental in designing and executing this project. Initially, they worked to promote the project among their peers including designing an email for communicating with interested students and posting on social media. Their creativity and engagement was very important to performing and completing the work for this project.”
Henry Tomiser, Social Science category: “The relationship between autistic traits, autistic camouflaging, and adults’ representations of abstract and social concepts”
Henry’s faculty mentor, Dr. Katja Wiemer said, “In his capstone, Henry is combining his love of language research with his passion for comprehending neurodiversity; in particular, how individuals on the autistic spectrum process information. His capstone is driven by this passion, not the need to complete the honors program. He is the most conscientious and meticulous student I have worked with on a capstone, bringing a very sharp, critical mind to every decision we make on methods, evaluation and analysis. He compiled a very impressive list of references for the project, with many of the readings exploring terrain that was new to him. The quality of the design and the potential for useful and publishable data here is on a level with a good master’s thesis.”
Kevin Lewis and Tyler Stewart, STEM category: “Summonable Construction Delivery Robot”
Kevin and Tyler’s faculty mentor, Dr. Peter Lin said, “One of Kevin’s remarkable achievements is his participation in the Summonable Delivery Robot capstone project with Ben and Tyler, where they showcased their innovative thinking and problem-solving skills by submitting and implementing a new design of the legged robot. Despite the complexity of the tasks at hand, Kevin, Ben and Tyler have exhibited remarkable adaptability and resilience, consistently pushing the boundaries of their knowledge and expertise. Their project is one of the most innovative projects in the area of mobile robots for the construction industry, receiving attention from an industry sponsor.”
Join us in congratulating all of our Spring 2024 Outstanding Capstone Award recipients!
