2018 Department of Psychology Awards Celebration Honors Undergraduate Accomplishments

The psychology department held the annual Awards Celebration on April 9, 2018, in the Nebraska Union. The annual event provided an opportunity to celebrate the impressive accomplishments of our outstanding undergraduate students.

Award winners
Wolfe award winner Shelby Wachal

The Harry K. Wolfe Award for the outstanding psychology major based on course work, research, teaching, and non-classroom activities was presented to Shelby Wachal. The undergraduate David Levine Diversity Enhancement Award for research was awarded to Myrianna Bakou for her research on the role of race on dehumanization, sexual objectification, and perceptions of sexual assault. In her own words, Myrianna’s research aims to “remove financial barriers to increase the quality of the lives of people living in poverty that cannot afford to seek help.” Emily Amen also received the Donald D. Jensen undergraduate Research Award for her paper entitled, “Toddler social-emotional characteristics and parental feeding practices.” A number of other students were recognized as honorable mentions and nominees.

Award winners
Myrianna Bakou, winner of the Levine award, with Dr. Trey Andrews
Award winners
Emily Amen, winner of the Jensen award, with Dr. Janet Jensen

New officers for the student organizations were sworn in and the accomplishments of the outstanding officers were recognized. Our chapter of Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology, also inducted 64 new members, the largest cohort of new inductees in nearly twenty years.

Congratulations to everyone recognized at the event and thank you to the generous donors who made many of these awards possible. Thanks also to Dr. Brown-Kramer who organized the event and who was the 2017-18 Psi Chi and Undergraduate Psychology Organization faculty supervisor, the Sarata Diversity Enhancement Committee who reviewed applications for the Levine Award, the Undergraduate Committee for their review of applications for the Wolfe and Jensen awards, and Carolyn Willis, the photographer for the event. If you are interested in contributing to these awards, please visit the psychology department website.