Every spring term, the Writing Intensive Curriculum program hosts the WIC Culture of Writing Awards in the Disciplines (COWA). These awards promote an academic culture at OSU that values the teaching, practice, and modeling of writing excellence across the disciplines. WIC’S COWA encourage our undergraduates and broader community to value the unique qualities of excellent writing within the disciplines.

Winners receive a $100 prize: $50 from the WIC Program, and $50 from the nominating unit. Winners will also be invited to submit their papers to ScholarsArchive@OSU, Oregon State’s thesis and dissertation archive.

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COWA Winners 2024

This year, 26 Oregon State University students across 25 majors have received a Culture of Writing Award for their outstanding disciplinary writing. One COWA recipient is a co-written effort by students Gareth Miller, Rabecka Moffit, Sara Vanaken. Another COWA recipient, Joseph Takach, was nominated by two different faculty members for two separate writing projects.

Congratulations to all of this year’s COWA winners:

STUDENT	PAPER TITLE	COLLEGE	NOMINATING MAJOR	NOMINATING PROFESSOR
Erin Armstrong	Elective Gonadectomy In Cats and Dogs	Agricultural Sciences	Animal and Rangeland Sciences	Giovanna Rosenlicht
Leah Biesack	Hot Bothered Quiet	Liberal Arts	Creative Writing	Sindya Bhanoo
McKenzie J. Brown	Exploring the Relationship Between Mindfulness and Independence in Individuals with Disabilities	Liberal Arts	Psychology	Kody Long
Margaret Brundage	The Style and Influence of Wallis, Duchess of Windsor	Business	Merchandising Management	Jennifer Mower
Elizabeth Cantu	The Impact of School Accountability on Student Outcomes	Liberal Arts	Economics	Paul Thompson
Carrie Chan	Research Project: Analysis of Mechanical Stress and its Effects on Determinate Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) Fruit Yield	Science	Zoology	Meta Landys
Rachel A Dodge	A School Based Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Program for American Indian/Alaska Native Children of Jefferson County, Oregon	College of Health	Public Health	Jill Hoxmeier
Tyler Doyle	Synthesis and Characterization of Molecular Sieve Zeolite 5A	Science	Chemistry	Kyriakos Stylianou
Antoine Godefroid	Individual Design Report	Engineering	Civil Engineering	Don Frier
Reese Kunitzer	Where God Ends and AI Begins	Liberal Arts	American Studies	Catherine Malcynsky
Eduardo Lopez	The Web of Relationships: How Experiences Shape a Transcendent Though Invisible Bond	Liberal Arts	Religious Studies	Amy Koehlinger
Kayla McDowell	The Direct and Indirect Effects of Barred Owl Competition on Northern Spotted Owls	CEOAS	Environmental Sciences	Alison Lay Cranston
Gareth Miller, Rabecka Moffit, Sara Vanaken	Group 32- Baja Strain Gauge Controller	Engineering	Electrical and Computer Engineering	Rachael Cate
Autumn Moore	The Benefits & Risks of Raw and Pasteurized Milk	Agricultural Sciences	Agricultural Sciences	KJ Joseph
Roman Quick	Talking Down To You: Dynamics of Social Climbing and Teaching at Climbing Gyms	Liberal Arts	Sociology	Dwaine Plaza
Timothy Reynolds	Bringing Conservation Home: Building ecosystem resilience within urban spaces	CEOAS	Environmental Sciences	Tyler McFadden
Mallory Schiebel	The Use of Virtual Reality to Improve Gait in those with Parkinson’s Disease	Health	Kinesiology	Mike Pavol
Zachary Smith	Plutarch’s Educational Theory on Advisors, Anger, and Peace of Mind	Liberal Arts	History	Kevin Oserloh
Ibrahim Syed	The Übermunch: Sexuality, Ice Spice, and Nietzsche’s “Will to Power”	Liberal Arts	Music	Kimary Fick
Joseph Takach	Constant Negative Curvature: Uniformity Without Symmetry	Science	Math	Tevian Dray
Joseph Takach	Hamiltonian Truncation Applied to Lattice f4 Theory	Science	Physics	Heidi Schellman
Faith M. Townsend	Graduate research proposal: The impact of warming winter temperatures on kelp in the Beaufort Sea	CEOAS	Oceanography	Byron Crump
Logan Verplancke	Individual Design Report	Engineering	Architectural Engineering	Don Frier
Lucas Yao	Looking Back to Look Forward: How Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments examines queerness in the past to provie hope for the future of queer existence	Liberal Arts	English	Megan Ward
Tarek Youngapelian	Nirgendwo in Afrika: Flucht, Heimat und Identität unter dem Einfluss der „Rassenhierarchie“(Nowhere in Africa: Flight, Home and Identity under the Influence of Racial Hierarchy)	Liberal Arts	German	Adela Hall

Any paper that was written by an OSU student for an undergraduate course (including non-WIC courses) is eligible for COWA nomination. COWA nominees are nominated by participating departments. While the nomination process takes place within each unit, COWA awardees are selected by faculty within each discipline.