Class Day 2025: Graduating Seniors, Honors Recipients, and Award Winners

Written by
Staff, Department of Psychology
May 27, 2025

The Department of Psychology held its annual Class Day ceremony on Monday, May 26, 2025, to celebrate graduating seniors, honors recipients, and prize winners.

Please click here to watch a recording of our ceremony. Class day photos are available to view and download here.


Honors Recipients

During the celebrations, the Department recognized the following Class of 2025 Honors recipients.

Highest Honors

Leena Bennetto, Aidan P. Mahoney, Zoë Mermin, Jules Regan, and Justin R. Shields

High Honors

Sana Asifriyaz, Eloise Berman, Sara Elaine Covin, Ian Fridman, David Heath, Hailey Lambert, Mari Noble, Miles Sugarman, Tiffany Tsai, and Hannah Van Dusen

Honors

Emily Barham, Kelsey Grace Champeau, Jehiyah Coles, Jonathan Geraghty, Grace Houlahan, David Huang, Rowan Park, Melissa Ruiz, and Gracie Wood

Phi Beta Kappa Society

The following recipients were also elected into the Phi Beta Kappa Society (the oldest national honorary scholastic society, founded in 1776): Sana Asifriyaz, Ian Fridman, and Jules Regan.


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. I am happy to report that this year, Yeji Park has been recognized by the faculty as the recipient of the Department of Psychology Graduate Student Teaching Award. Please join us in congratulating Yeji 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 two psychology majors killed at Kent State University in the spring of 1970. This prize 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.

Please join us in congratulating Leena Bennetto as this year’s recipient for her thesis advised by Professor Molly Crockett and entitled, “Chronic Chronicles: Navigating Narrative Identity, Biographical Meaning, and Mental Health in Chronic Illness.” Committee members selected Leena’s thesis for her creative, thoughtful, and well-executed investigation into how the mental well-being of those with chronic illness is influenced by the way in which they tell the story of their illness. This research “reveals that how we tell stories about ourselves not only reflect who we are but who we may become,” and “could lead to new ways of caring for those with chronic illnesses.”

Senior Thesis Prize in Clinical Psychology

The Department of Psychology’s senior thesis prize in Clinical Psychology is awarded to the graduating senior whose thesis is judged to be the most outstanding thesis in clinical psychology, broadly construed. Generally, it’s awarded to the student whose thesis best exemplifies the application of empirical methods to the study of psychopathology, or the prevention or treatment of psychopathology.

Please join us in congratulating Zoë Mermin as this year’s recipient for her thesis advised by Professor Kristina Olson and entitled, “The Relationship Between Identity-Based Social Support, Victimization, and Mental Health among LGBTQ+ Youth.” Committee members selected Zoë’s thesis for her “high-quality and interesting investigation,” which shed light on the role of social support among trans youth, a group that is historically under-represented in psychological research. The paper was well-written, and the inclusion of longitudinal data analyses was a notable strength of this project, resulting in "an exceptional senior thesis!"

The Edward E. Jones Memorial Prize

The Edward E. Jones Memorial prize is awarded to the graduating senior whose senior thesis is judged to be the most outstanding work in 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 purely theoretical character are also considered.

Please join us in congratulating Jules Regan as this year’s recipient for her thesis advised by Professor Casey Lew-Williams and entitled, “'When Will I Ever Need to Use This?' Math Learning and Home Engagement Across SES.” Committee members selected Jules’ thesis for her "monumental amount of work, from conceptualization to recruitment to analysis to writing, overcoming logistical and bureaucratic obstacles." The thesis, which investigated how cultural mismatches in formal education perpetuate achievement gaps, represented one of the most independent projects the committee had seen, resulting in “an exceptional study on a topic of exceptional social importance.”

The Howard Crosby Warren Prize in Psychology

Funded by an endowment established at the bequest of Catherine C. Warren, the Howard Crosby Warren Prize is awarded to a Senior Psychology major selected by the Department as the most worthy recipient on the basis of their good character and scholarly attainment in the senior thesis, departmental exam, and departmental coursework. Please join us in congratulating Zoë Mermin as this year’s recipient of the Howard Crosby Warren Senior Prize!


The Department of Psychology would like to thank prize recipients and all Class of 2025 members for a fantastic year and a job well-done. Congratulations and best wishes for all the future brings!