Provost’s Award Granted to 5 Extraordinary IU Undergraduate Researchers

Each year, The Provost’s Award for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity is granted to five exceptional Indiana University students. These students are rewarded for remarkable work in their respective fields. The award categories include Creative Arts, Social and Applied Sciences, Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Professional Inquiry, and Humanities.

The Provost’s Awards are announced in the springtime and recipients receive a certificate to honor their achievement. These extraordinary student researchers are each assigned to an IU faculty mentor and many have found that these mentors play a pivotal role in their success. The winner’s faculty mentors receive a grant sponsored by the Offices of the Provost to fund future research projects.

Alicia Harmon is a senior majoring in interdepartmental sociology, African American and African Diaspora Studies. She is also minoring in Spanish, psychology, and creative writing. The creative works she has been awarded for come from a short story titled “Naked” and the first chapter of her upcoming novel My Body Remembers You.

Harmon’s novel-in-progress explores how families navigate their traumas, dreams, and the conflicts of developing sexuality in hostile spaces. The main character defines what it means to be her true self as a Black woman when so many others have already tried to decide for her. “In the novel, I’m processing a range of personal experiences and social issues including sexual trauma and exploration, classism and respectability politics, difficult family relationships, and how families define love,” said Harmon. Both of Harmon’s writings draw heavily from what she has learned throughout her honors thesis, Respectability, Violence, Sex, and the Self: Black Women’s Redefinition During the Black Power Movement, where Harmon explored Black women’s evolving self-conceptualizations. “I aimed to better understand Black women’s intimate and political lives through their history and individual testimonies in fiction, film, biography, and autobiography,” she said.

Harmon’s mentor, Maria E. Hamilton Abegunde, Ph.D., is the founding director of IU’s Graduate Mentoring Center and a faculty member in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies. Harmon was first introduced to Dr. Abegunde through one of her IU courses, Memory, Trauma, and Dealing in the African Diaspora. Dr. Abegunde became her thesis advisor the following year. “She encouraged me to study Black women and the many intersections of our lives in a way I hadn't before,” said Harmon, “through working with her, I've come to understand myself, my goals, and my creative and academic potential in ways I didn't quite understand before. I was going through a lot when I first met her, and I truly think I would be a different person walking a different creative and academic path without her help in healing and growing.”

Harmon understands the extreme competitiveness of the writing world, but is still determined to continue on her creative journey. Encouragement from Dr. Abegunde, other IU professors, and her father have kept her going. “To be nominated, much less awarded, for the type of work I love doing is so exciting and validating,” Harmon said, “while I strive to be self-motivated and disciplined, it means so much to have other people rooting for me.” Harmon plans to finish her novel this May and continue to fully dedicate herself to writing. She has arranged for a gap year after graduation to edit her novel and potentially pursue teaching and writing abroad opportunities. Her future academic plans are to apply for a Master of Fine Arts degree, a graduate-level program for students interested in studying visual and performing arts, design, or creative writing.

Sydney Adams is a senior majoring in psychology working towards a certificate in clinical psychological science and a minor in epidemiology. She is an undergraduate assistant for IU’s Brian D’Onofrio, Ph.D. in the Developmental Psychopathy Lab. For the past year, Adams has dedicated most of her time in the lab to her honors thesis project where she has examined mental health inequities and barriers to treatment. Particularly, racial-ethnic differences in diagnosis and treatment patterns for ADHD among adolescents. “My hope is that my findings will help to better characterize patterns of treatment for ADHD among members of minority groups,” Adams said.

Adams cites assisting Dr. D’Onofrio as being one of the most transformative experiences of her IU career. “When I joined the lab, I gained access to a whole network of other students and scientists that I never would have met otherwise,” she said, “plus, access to attentive mentorship from Dr. D’Onofrio himself.” In the lab, Adams has learned about different types of research including social psychology, neuroscience, and mental health policy.

She said that winning the Provost’s Award for her work is a, “massive honor.” Next year, Adams plans to work as a post-baccalaureate research assistant where she will continue to pursue her interests in clinical psychology and psychiatric epidemiology. Further down the line she hopes to attend graduate school and obtain a Ph.D. in clinical psychology or a Masters of Public Health degree. “I’m interested in lots of different areas of science,” said Adams, “but I think my ultimate goals are to conduct research that centers the needs and lived experiences of people with mental illness and to do what I can to promote mental health equity.”

Meghan Langford is a senior studying secondary social studies education and education policy. Her Provost’s Award reflects the extraordinary work she has done for her semester-long capstone project where she combined her three passions: social justice, community outreach, and children’s literature. “My project investigates the modernity of the depictions of Indigenous communities in children’s literature over time and features two main components: a website that serves as an open education resource (OER) of my research and a social justice book club event,” said Langford.

Langford’s IU faculty mentor, Education Librarian, Christina Jones, has supported Langford in a multitude of ways throughout her research. “This project simply could not have been done without her advice and guidance,” said Langford, “Christina helped me locate Indigenous children’s literature and introduced me to the work of Indigenous scholars.” Jones played a significant role within the book club component of Langford’s capstone project as she worked closely with Langford and coordinated reader and facilitator discussion for the event.

“I am truly honored to be receiving this recognition and I wish to extend my deepest gratitude [to the Provost’s office for considering] my research,” said Langford. Langford is currently participating in the IU School of Education’s Global Gateway for Teachers program where pre-service teachers are placed in schools all over the world to complete their student teaching experience. She has been placed in a secondary school in Dublin and will be teaching there for ten weeks. After her return to the U.S. in late May, she will finally be able to fulfill her lifelong dream of being a teacher.

Logan Geyman is a senior majoring in molecular life sciences. He has received the Provost’s Award for his exceptional work within Dr. Julia van Kessel’s biology lab. “My current project in the lab involved establishing a CRISPR interference system for use within our model bacteria,” Geyman said, “this system allows us to make bacterial strains on a more rapid time frame.” This greater element of control allows for Geyman and his fellow lab members to characterize how bacteria communicate during phases of their growth that were previously impossible to accurately evaluate. 

Geyman considers his mentor, Dr. van Kessel, to be instrumental in his work as an undergraduate researcher. “Dr. van Kessel has been incomparably tactful in adjusting her mentorship style to suit my evolving needs as a student,” he said. Geyman commends her ability to shift between hands-on and hands-off lab work and thanks her for her constant encouragement and guidance. “She has always pushed me to be the best scientist I can be while also encouraging my growth outside of the lab.”

It is incredibly exciting to be given this honor,” Geyman says of the Provost’s Award, “the goal of research is to push the edge of human knowledge and communicate what you find during your exploration. This award feels like evidence that I have been at least partially successful and that is an incredibly rewarding experience.” Beginning next year, Geyman plans to start his Ph.D. journey here at IU. His goal is to one day use his degree to become a professor and researcher in order to pursue his passions for research and mentoring.

IU senior Elizabeth McAvoy is a senior pursuing a Law & Public Policy Bachelor of Science in Public Affairs, as well as a Philosophy/Political Science Bachelors of Arts. She has been working under the mentorship of distinguished IU professor Dr. Kirsten Grønbjerg. Dr. Grønbjerg’s research focuses on non-profit funding relations and the American welfare system. 

McAvoy has been awarded for her research on the Indiana Nonprofits Project. She began working on this project as a freshman through the CEW&T Emerging Scholars Research Experience for Undergraduate Women. “For the past four years, I have been analyzing data from the Indiana Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations which collects information on current issues affecting local governments in Indiana,” said McAvoy. She has co-authored five reports focused on analyzing survey questions related to non-profits. 

“[Dr. Grønbjerg] enhanced my research experience by allowing me to lead my research and assisting when I needed help,” said McAvoy, “this allowed me to independently think and work so I could learn how to create a report from start to finish.” McAvoy noted her gratitude for Dr. Grønbjerg’s attentive leadership and diligence with answering questions despite the time difference from her mentor’s international placement in Denmark.

“I feel incredibly honored to be celebrated for my work, especially alongside my fantastic mentor, whom I am eternally grateful for,” said McAvoy, “the best part of the Provost’s Award is that it recognizes the important role that mentors have played in shaping and developing students.” Her plans after spring graduation include working until she decides if she wants to pursue a master’s degree or a Ph.D. McAvoy is also interested in politics, so she is currently searching for a data analyst position for a campaign or political party.

To learn more about the Provost’s Award and to see past winners, visit: https://provost.indiana.edu/about/award-recipients.html