Every spring, the Marriott Library offers two awards; one for an outstanding senior thesis effort in a humanities-related discipline and one for a submission in the general category of sciences. Each student-recipient is honored at the luncheon and given a $1,000 award.

Jasmine Robinson graduated with a double major—peace and conflicts studies (with an emphasis in social justice) and psychology. She also earned a minor in human development and family studies. The title of Robinson’s Honors Thesis is “The Black Perspective: Historical and Structural Violence to the Black Community.”

For her honors thesis, Robinson chose to design a Praxis Lab—a special class taught in the Honors College and that lasts an entire academic year.

“For my project, I wanted to design a class that would actually help highlight some of the difficult challenges Black students face on this campus,” explained Robinson. “And I wanted to create something that would last in perpetuity.”

Heather Cummins graduated from the Honors College with a degree in chemistry, with a biology emphasis. The title of her honors thesis is “Analysis of Eyes Shut (EYS) Function During Intestinal Regeneration in Drosophila Melanogaster.”

“We’re working on signaling pathways in the gut that influence repair and renewal for patients with gastrointestinal diseases. We’re using flies as model organisms and hope that one day we’ll have treatments for people suffering debilitating diseases,” she said.

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