2025: Undergraduates Recognized
- Jennifer Congel
On April 29, 2025, the Maxwell School celebrated the achievements of undergraduate scholarship in the social sciences in the twelfth annual Maxwell Celebration of Undergraduate Scholarship. Our celebration consisted of individual events hosted by each department as well as a multi-disciplinary poster session featuring research undertaken by undergraduate students during the current academic year.
The following awards were presented during the celebration:
MAX 123/132 Exemplary Student Paper Award, selected by MAX course faculty.
MAX 123 – Jonathan Collard de Beaufort (co-winner)
MAX 123 – Caleb Habel (co-winner)
MAX 132 – Virgil Pellecchia (co-winner)
MAX 132 – Hannah Ragan (co-winner)
Outstanding Student Research Paper, selected by a Maxwell faculty committee:
Cassidy Snyder for her paper titled “Reagan's Silent Shield: How an Enduring FBI Anti-Communist Alliance Protected a Presidency”
Honorable Mention Research Paper, selected by a Maxwell faculty committee:
Adam Baltaxe for his paper titled “Bridging Divides: U.S. Peacebuilding Efforts in Guatemala"
Ella Hawkins for her paper titled “Queer customs, quaint peoples, and odd experiences: Afterlives of Anthropological Entrepreneurship and the Movement of Human Remains in 1930's Central New York”
Best Poster Award, selected by a committee of Maxwell graduate students:
Sophia Nelson for her poster titled “Culture of Imperialism in Oil Politics and Management Between Sudan and South Sudan”
Research Poster Honorable Mention, selected by a committee of Maxwell graduate students:
Kiana Tan for her poster titled “The European Green Deal and its Influence on corporate lobbying within the European Union”
Viewer's Choice Poster Awards, selected by viewer voting during the poster session:
Jack McCarty (first place) for his poster titled “Plain Influence: An Analysis of the Cultural, Social and Political Impacts of the Amish and Mennonites on Local Secular Society and How the Rurality of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Exacerbates These Effects”
Isabella Zuluaga (second place) for her poster titled “Behind the Bars: Officer vs. Prisoner”
Faculty Advisor of the Year:
Junko Takeda, Professor, History
Congratulations to all the students who participated. Thank you to Ben and Marcia Baldanza for endowing these awards and thank you to all the faculty and staff who supported the students.