The Department of Psychology held its annual Class Day ceremony on Monday, May 27, 2024, to celebrate graduating seniors, honors recipients, and prize winners.
You may view and download photos from our Class Day ceremony here.
Honors Recipients
During the celebrations, the Department recognized the following Class of 2024 Honors recipients.
Highest Honors
Sofia Simone Baran, Tiffany Cao, Katherine Jin, Bridget Murphy, Emmett Willford, and Tsion Mariam Yared
High Honors
Yonatan Porfirio Ambriosio Lomeli, Dallas Brodersen, Tiffanie Cheng Wu, Sophia Donovan, Sarah Bryony Gemmell, Cara Suliman Khalifeh, Julia Truc Nguyen, Logan Oyama, and Julia Witczak
Honors
Jesus Adan Arroyo, Akhila Bandlora, Marlene Esmeralda Cardoza, Aidan Conner, Athena Angelique I. Dobles, Sarah A. Fillier, Tamunotoru Obunge, and Oyinade Ifeoluwa Oyenusi
Phi Beta Kappa Society
The following Honors recipient was also elected into the Phi Beta Kappa Society (the oldest national honorary scholastic society, founded in 1776): Tiffany Cao.
Prizes
Graduate Student Teaching Award
Each year, the Department of Psychology sponsors a teaching award to recognize and honor a graduate student who has made significant contributions to undergraduate teaching in the Department. We are happy to report that this year, Abla Alaoui-Soce has been recognized by the faculty as the recipient of the Department of Psychology Graduate Student Teaching Award. Please join us in congratulating Abla on this accomplishment, and we thank her for her service to the Department and our students!
The Miller-Schroeder Memorial Prize
The Miller-Schroeder Memorial Prize is given in memory of the two psychology majors killed at Kent State University in the spring of 1970. It is awarded to the graduating senior whose thesis best exemplifies the application of the psychological methods to the study of a problem of social significance.
Class of 2024 member Tiffanie Cheng Wu's thesis, advised by Professor Rebecca Carey and entitled "Bridge or Barrier?: Differential Impact of Friend Networks on the Well-Being of First-Generation, Low-Income Students Compared to Their Peers," was selected as the 2024 winner of this prize. Committee members selected Tiffanie’s thesis for her impressive, preregistered longitudinal design that assessed well-being in first-gen and low-income populations, which are typically difficult to recruit.
The Edward E. Jones Memorial Prize
Edward E. Jones Memorial Prize is awarded to the graduating student whose senior thesis is judged to be the most outstanding work in social psychology, broadly construed. In keeping with Professor Jones's own interests, special consideration is given to theses that report innovative empirical research, although theses of a purely theoretical character are also considered.
Class of 2024 member Tiffany Cao's thesis, advised by Professor Erik Nook and entitled "Examining Differences in Social Reappraisal Efficacy for Spanish-English Bilinguals," was selected as the 2024 winner of this prize. Committee members selected Tiffany’s thesis for her excellent conceptualization of a theoretical question that builds on previous literature and also say that her work helps us to update our ideas about language and emotions more generally.
Senior Thesis Prize in Clinical Psychology
The Department of Psychology’s Senior Thesis Prize in Clinical Psychology is awarded to the graduating senior or seniors whose thesis is judged to be the most outstanding thesis in clinical psychology, broadly construed. Generally, it is awarded to the student(s) whose thesis best exemplifies the application of empirical methods to the study of psychopathology or the prevention or treatment of psychopathology.
Class of 2024 member Jesus Adan Arroyo's thesis, advised by Professor Erik Nook and entitled "Accepting Mindfulness-Based Interventions: Addressing & Overcoming Potential Concerns," was selected as the first 2024 winner of this prize. Committee members selected Jesus’s thesis for his ambitious and impressive design, which included two preregistered studies, and say that his work helps us to understand of how we may increase engagement with mindfulness-based psychological treatments.
Class of 2024 member Cara Suliman Khalifeh's thesis, advised by Professor Yael Niv and entitled "Schizotypy Correlates with Poor Event Segmentation: Insights for Schizophrenia Spectrum," was selected as the second 2024 winner of this prize. Committee members selected Cara’s thesis for her impressive and cutting-edge methods, which were utilized in a large online sample, and say that her work allows us to better understand how psychotic-spectrum symptoms may influence the way in which people parse their constant stream of experiences into specific events.
The Howard Crosby Warren Prize in Psychology
Funded by an endowment established by the bequest of Catherine C. Warren, the Howard Crosby Warren Prizes are awarded annually to the senior concentrators in Psychology who are selected by the Department as the most worthy recipients on the basis of scholarly attainment and good character. The following Class of 2024 members have been selected to receive this prize for 2024: Sofia Simone Baran, Dallas Brodersen, Tiffany Cao, Katherine Jin, Bridget Murphy, Emmett Willford, and Tsion Mariam Yared.
The Department of Psychology would like to thank prize recipients and all Class of 2024 members for a fantastic year and a job well-done. Congratulations and best wishes for all the future brings!