The Honors College is pleased to announce Lindsay Beaman as the 2023 recipient of the Joe Hendricks Scholarship for Academic Excellence. Shaurya Gaur, Bridget Price, Matthew Raffel, Anda Gherghe and Clare Jayawickrama have been named runners up.
The award was established by alumni and friends in honor of Joe Hendricks, the founding dean of the Honors College, following his retirement. It recognizes outstanding Honors College students for their academic achievements, research and campus engagement. The scholarship committee selected Beaman to receive the $2,500 scholarship, while each of the runners up received a $500 prize.
“I feel shocked and deeply honored to be named this year’s Hendricks Scholar. The Honors College has so many talented and dedicated students, so the opportunity to be recognized along with the other outstanding nominees is something that brings me so much excitement,” remarked Beaman after learning the news of her selection. “To me, being awarded this honor sends the message: ‘The work you are doing and the impact you are making are important.’”
Beaman, a third-year psychology major who is also earning a certificate in medical humanities, was nominated by Dr. Courtney Campbell, the Hundere Professor in Religion and Culture in the School of History, Philosophy and Religion. She is currently working on her thesis, “Racism, Institutional Betrayal, and Historical Trauma: The Implications of Physician Perpetrated Microaggressions,” under the guidance of Dr. Regan A. R. Gurung, a professor of psychology. Describing it, she says, “my thesis is informed by the lived experiences of Black and Indigenous folks who have shared their stories with physician perpetrated microaggressions.” She aims to approach her research through community engagement that uplifts the voices of people experiencing violence.
She describes her Honors College experience as being filled “with opportunity, innovation and encouragement. I am surrounded by students and faculty that encourage others to think in creative, “outside-the-box” ways to promote learning and create change.” She appreciates how her professors push her to ask hard questions and turn her interests into actions, especially through research. This summer, Beaman will be a biomedical ethics intern at the Mayo Clinic, where she will assist with research addressing disparity issues in regenerative biotherapeutics. She looks forward to applying the skills and perspectives she develops to her thesis following her return.
A passion for research and healthcare is shared by runner-up Anda Gherghe. Gherghe, a fourth-year microbiology major with a minor in chemistry, said of her nomination, “I’m surprised and excited to receive this scholarship! I’m honored to be recognized for my achievements alongside the other nominees. I feel grateful for this opportunity.” She was nominated by her thesis mentor Anita Cservenka, an associate professor of psychology. Gherghe will defend her thesis, “Recent Stressful Experiences and Electronic Nicotine Product Use Among Young Adults” this spring.
Following graduation, Gherghe plans to take a year off to work in a research lab before returning to school to pursue a doctor of nursing practice degree. She hopes to have a career that blends healthcare with mentorship and research.
Runner-up Bridget Price echoed Gherghe’s excitement about her nomination, saying the nomination gave her “a little extra confidence that all the work I am doing is a teeny bit valuable to some people.” Price is a fourth-year honors student double majoring in chemical engineering and bioresource management with a minor in chemistry. This nomination was also meaningful, as “the Honors College has always felt like my home base.” Price has been heavily involved with the Honors College during her four years, serving as an HC ambassador, as a residential assistant in Sackett Hall with the Honors College Living and Learning Community and as co-president of the Honors College Student Association.
Price plans to defend her thesis, “The Role of Microbial Symbiosis in Algal Biomass Cultivation,” in summer 2023. Following her graduation, she will spend a year researching algae at Wageningen University in the Netherlands through the Fulbright Student Program. After that, she will pursue her Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Runner-up Shaurya Gaur also appreciates the community the Honors College has given him and how his classmates’ drive has pushed him to excel. Gaur is a fourth-year computer science major with minors in mathematics and political science. He is heavily involved on campus, serving as the president for the Association for Computing Machinery and the vice president for BridgeUSA.
Gaur plans to defend his honors thesis, “Productivity Playlist: Interpolating a Musical Path Between Emotions using a K Nearest Neighbors (KNN) Algorithm,” in spring 2023. Gaur was nominated by his thesis mentor, Dr. Patrick Donnelly, an assistant professor of computer science at OSU-Cascades. Following his graduation in the spring, Shaurya will begin a masters of science program in artificial intelligence in Europe in September.
Runner-up Matthew Raffel also hails from the College of Engineering, where he is majoring in electrical and computer engineering with a minor in computer science. Raffel is dedicated to providing support for others in the College of Engineering, participating in the Society of Professional Hispanic Engineers and the Oregon State International Friendship Program.
Raffel was nominated by his thesis mentor, Dr. Lizhong Chen, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science. He defended his thesis in fall 2022, titled “Leveraging Transformer Encoder Output for Effective Token Summary in Simultaneous Translation.” Deeply involved in research, he appreciates that this award “confirms that [he is] on the right academic path.” Raffel plans to continue his studies at Oregon State and will begin his Ph.D. in the fall.
Fellow runner-up Clare Jayawickrama is also dedicated to helping others on campus through her involvements with on-campus ministry, such as volunteering at the Newman Center and the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry. She is familiar with the Hendricks Scholarship after being named as a runner up in 2022, as well. She said of her selection “I was very surprised to hear that I had been selected as a runner-up again this year. It was wonderful news and very affirming for me that my achievements have been recognized.”
Clare works in Dr. Stephan Giovannoni’s microbiology lab and was nominated for the award by Sarah Wolf, a graduate student researcher from the lab. Clare is preparing to defend her thesis, “Investigating microbial enzyme kinetics in low oxygen systems,” under Giovannoni’s guidance. Following her graduation this spring, Clare plans to spend a year as a volunteer missionary with the Newman Center at American University in Washington D.C. and begin medical school the following year.
Congratulations to the award recipients!
By Kate McHugh, Public Information Representative
CATEGORIES: All Stories Features Homefeature Homestories Students