University Honors Program announces winners, honorable mentions for spring awards

LAWRENCE — Every spring, the University Honors Program at the University of Kansas considers students for several annual awards and prizes that serve the dual purpose of providing financial support and recognizing students’ academic achievements and aspirations. The 2023 recipients are listed below, with a brief description of each award and its corresponding cash prize.

John Lubianetsky, an East Asian languages & cultures, global & international studies, and political science major from Kansas City, Missouri, received the RWJ Scholars Award in Memory of Richard W. Judy. Navya Singh, a biochemistry and pre-medical major from Chandigarh, India, received an honorable mention for the award, which provides $1,000 to the writer of an essay addressing some aspect of entrepreneurship, workforce development, Russian and American relations or their future.

Singh was also named winner of the Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett Outstanding Contribution Award, which gives $1,000 to a student exhibiting leadership, innovation and engagement in the honors program. Additionally, Singh will deliver remarks to incoming first-year students at Honors Convocation, which serves as the program’s kickoff event for the academic year.

Emily Schrumpf, an architecture major from Bridgeton, Missouri, received the Sara and Mary Edwards Paretsky Award for Creativity. Fatima Asif, a biochemistry, English and pre-medical major from Overland Park, received an honorable mention for the award, which provides $500 to a female junior honors student demonstrating creativity and originality in her field.

For outstanding performance in their first-year honors seminars, three deserving students received the David Paretsky Honors Program Book Award, which provides each with $300 to help cover textbook expenses:

• Nicole Giam, a chemistry major from Overland Park
• Kate Rosa, a molecular, cellular & developmental biology, East Asian languages & cultures, and pre-pharmacy major from Emporia
• Steven Young, a chemical engineering major from Eudora.

Two students received this year’s Yarick-Morgan Prize for Excellence, a $10,000 nonrenewable scholarship recognizing graduates of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences who earned university honors and plan to pursue graduate studies at KU:

• Claire Cox, a history major from Paola
• Austin Nguyen, a biology and ecology & evolutionary biology major from Overland Park.

Additionally, Cox won the Whitcomb Essay Contest for her piece, “Decolonizing the Wakarusa Museum: The Role of Public Education and Forced Displacement Within the Settler Colonial Structure.” Cox will receive $500 and recognition on a plaque located in Nunemaker Center, home of the honors program. The contest is conducted in partnership with KU’s Department of Philosophy and is open to any undergraduate student, regardless of honors involvement.

“Student excellence takes many forms, and these students have demonstrated tremendous motivation and talent through their academic achievements,” said Sarah Crawford-Parker, the program’s director. “We are grateful to our donors who make recognizing this success possible.”

Learn more about the University Honors Program awards.