{"id":7069,"date":"2022-06-01T08:45:52","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T15:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/?p=7069"},"modified":"2022-09-29T22:50:39","modified_gmt":"2022-09-30T05:50:39","slug":"paris-myers-named-2022-honors-college-hendricks-scholar-for-academic-excellence-josh-brenne-angelina-conrow-clare-jayawickrama-and-maya-livni-runners-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/2022\/06\/01\/paris-myers-named-2022-honors-college-hendricks-scholar-for-academic-excellence-josh-brenne-angelina-conrow-clare-jayawickrama-and-maya-livni-runners-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Myers named 2022 Honors College Hendricks Scholar for Academic Excellence. Josh Brenne, Angelina Conrow, Clare Jayawickrama and Maya Livni runners-up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Honors College is pleased to announce Oregon State University Honors College senior Paris Myers as the 2022 winner of the Joe Hendricks Honors College Scholarship for Academic Excellence. Josh Brenne, Angelina Conrow, Clare Jayawickrama and Maya Livni have been named runners-up for the distinguished award, established in honor of the founding dean of the Honors College, Joe Hendricks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Created by alumni and friends upon Dean Hendricks\u2019s retirement, the Hendricks Scholarship recognizes outstanding Honors College students for their academic accomplishments, research and campus engagement, and this year, a record 36 students were nominated by faculty \u2014 the most in the scholarship\u2019s history. Of those nominated, a scholarship committee selected one honors student, Paris, who received a $2,500 scholarship. Students selected as runners-up each received $500 prizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was completely surprised and completely honored,\u201d Paris says, recalling her feelings when she first learned she had been selected as this year\u2019s winner. \u201cIt’s an incredibly humbling selection and a joy to stand beside the other 35 amazing students who were nominated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paris \u2014 a double-major in bioengineering and fine art, with minors in popular music and art history \u2014 has spent her years in the Honors College involved in a myriad of research and work opportunities, which have taken her from charitable work in Corvallis to an ongoing internship in Boston, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Her thesis, \u201cThe Age of Embodiment: A Transmutational, Networked, Arts and Engineering Research Practice,\u201d which she defended in May of 2022, was deeply informed, she says, by her time as a visiting undergraduate research intern at Harvard\u2019s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, an internship she began in May 2021 and has continued remotely throughout the 2021-22 academic year. The project involves the design of new research frameworks and sculptural robotic devices that situate our humanity \u2014 and our implicit and explicit emotional and physical selves \u2014 as parameters in design and engineering. The freedom to immediately begin research work without first securing an internship, however, is something Paris has found unique to the Honors College experience \u2014 and the most valuable part of being an honors student. \u201cThe professors are genuinely excited to help you mobilize and actualize your research questions and interests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduation, Paris will be joining the biomechatronics laboratory at the MIT Media Lab, and the nomination for the Hendricks Scholarship has felt empowering for the future full-time researcher. \u201cCreating change takes a community,\u201d Paris says. \u201cWhat this scholarship means to me is that the Honors College is saying \u2018We see you, we hear you and we stand behind you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An emphasis on community is something runner-up Josh Brenne, a senior studying biochemistry and molecular biology, understands well. \u201cFiguring out what I would do for my thesis was really a multi-year process that involved a deep desire to learn more about myself and the communities I’ve spent time with [and explore the] academic interests I had in psychology in general and personal identity development in particular, with incredible help developing this idea from mentors all along the way,\u201d Josh says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Josh is the former co-president of the Asian Pacific American Student Union and is currently a leadership liaison at the OSU Asian and Pacific Cultural Center. He also works in the community as a certified nursing assistant in a care home in Corvallis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am incredibly grateful for the recognition of the work I have done throughout my time in college,\u201d Josh says. \u201cIt means that at least some people have been impacted by my work, and I want to continue making an impact for as long as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For fellow runner-up Angelina Conrow, a senior double majoring in psychology and English, serving others during her time as an undergraduate has been a priority \u2014 and one that is perfectly aligned with her career aspirations. She has previously created content for virtual mental health prevention with a start-up company and now works as a crisis counselor for Crisis Text Line and as an active volunteer with the Newman Center. After graduating from OSU, she plans to further her education with the goal of one day opening her own counseling clinic, noting a lack of mental health services as her motivation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI was definitely surprised,\u201d she says of her nomination. \u201cI know there are a lot of really talented and accomplished students in the Honors College, so I am very honored to be a runner up for this award.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angelina was nominated by her honors thesis mentor, Dr. Regan A. R. Gurung, who oversaw the research for her thesis, \u201cAsian American Women and Clothing Perceptions: A Study of Intersectionality,\u201d in which Angelina examined prejudice and clothing type, focusing specifically on stereotypes of Asian American women. This project, she says, has been the most enjoyable part of her Honors College experience. \u201cI never thought I would enjoy research as much as I have, and it\u2019s been a really rewarding experience to be able to conceptualize and work on a project from start to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Angelina, runner-up Clare Jayawickrama was taken by surprise when hearing of her nomination for the Hendricks Scholarship, sharing that the recognition has brought her more than just financial gain: \u201cIt is affirming to have my presence and engagement in the Honors College be recognized.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An OSU junior majoring in bioengineering, Clare currently works as an undergraduate assistant in the lab of Dr. Stephan Giovannoni in the Department of Microbiology, a peer mentor for the OSU Stem Leaders Program, the student music coordinator for the Newman Center and a volunteer with the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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She is also working on her honors thesis \u2014 an examination of the impacts of oxygenase enzyme activity on seasonal hypoxia events on the Oregon Coast \u2014 under the guidance of her mentor, Dr. Giovannoni. A profound benefit of being part of the honors community, she says, has been the support she\u2019s received throughout the development of her thesis and the opportunities it has provided her to explore the work of both Oregon State faculty and students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The relationships she\u2019s formed in and through the Honors College, though, have enriched her overall experience at OSU: \u201cThere are always so many events happening \u2014 from my involvement in the Honors College Student Association to taking various colloquia \u2014 through which I have been able to meet fellow students from different fields and majors that I wouldn\u2019t have met otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Runner-up Maya Livni shares a similar appreciation for community building. From volunteering with Stone Soup and Community Outreach, Inc., to holding positions as the Honors College Student Association president and Biochemistry Club vice president, the third-year biochemistry and molecular biology major\u2019s involvement with campus programs has been extensive. She has also worked as a learning assistant for Principles of Biology, the program coordinator for the Honors College \u201cForgot Your Lunch?\u201d program and a volunteer for the Adaptive Exercise Clinic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For her honors thesis, she is stepping outside of her primary field of study to explore the gut microbiome and how it can be altered to remedy central nervous system disorder symptoms. The project, she says, has presented an opportunity to branch out and dive into a topic she has had a growing interest in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an honors student, Maya shares that it isn\u2019t uncommon to go above and beyond both in and out of the classroom \u2014 or to see her peers do the same. Being nominated for the Hendricks Scholarship, however, has reminded her of the extraordinary work she has put in throughout her undergraduate career thus far: \u201cThis honor forces me to pause for a minute and actually be proud of what I am doing. It is a nice sense of validation that the work I do is important for my community and myself, and it gives me new energy to continue to work hard to make small changes in the environments I live within.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By: Adriana Fischer, Media and Communications Representative<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Honors College is pleased to announce Oregon State University Honors College senior Paris Myers as the 2022 winner of the Joe Hendricks Honors College Scholarship for Academic Excellence. Josh Brenne, Angelina Conrow, Clare Jayawickrama and Maya Livni have been named runners-up for the distinguished award, established in honor of the founding dean of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11853,"featured_media":7400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1163420,82,1306,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-features","category-student","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11853"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7069"}],"version-history":[{"count":45,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8566,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7069\/revisions\/8566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}