Congratulations to the recipients of the Sociology departmental awards for 2025!
Graduate Awards
Junlan Ren and Byran Greene: Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award (tied winners)
Dunahay Pereyra: Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award
Dunahay Pereyra for the paper titled, “You’re So Fat You Need Medication”: Online Discourses of Fatness, Beauty, and Medicalization in PCOS Communities”: Ron Taylor Award
Rui Wu: Dashefsky Award
Lauren Danielowski: Dunphy Award
Undergraduate Awards
Rebecca Seckley and Yareli Benitez-Botello: Janet M. Fierberg Scholarship Award
Rebecca Seckley was admitted in the Fall of 2025 to the UConn Masters in Social Work program. She is in her first year of graduate study after earning her bachelor’s degree in Special Education at the University of Hartford. Rebecca plans to become a medical social worker in an inpatient setting to “help mitigate the disabling effects of chronic illness on individuals and their communities, including the mental effects of long-term illness and physical disability.”
Yareli Benitez-Botello is an incoming (summer 2025) UConn Masters of Social Work student with advanced standing, after completing her bachelor’s degree in Social Work at Eastern Connecticut State University. Yareli is pursuing social work to “advocate for equitable access to resources and create culturally responsive support systems.”
Liam Cohen: Public Engagement Award
Liam Cohen is a sociology major whose submission focused on the creation of “The Space” for LGBTQ students on the Stamford Campus. Liam helped create this much needed space by advocating for the needs of LGBTQ students, drafting a plan, meeting with the campus director, and inviting student groups, like the Gay Space club, to use the space.
Liam Cohen and Justin E. Guinta: Student Paper Award
Liam’s qualitative study is titled, “Experiences of Neurodiverse Graduate Students in STEM: A Qualitative Analysis.” Liam conducted a content analysis of 10 interviews from the podcast “Square Pegs” to examine graduate students’ experiences with neurodivergence in STEM programs. In their findings they emphasize the “importance of community and mentorship in facilitating neurodivergent students’ success in STEM programs.”
Justin’s quantitative study is titled, “Public Education and Capital: Pedagogical Applications of Social Control Theory.” Justin’s research examined data from EdSight, Connecticut’s public education database, to study students’ performance indexes, social, and financial resources. Through this research, Justin stresses the importance of social and financial capital to improving students’ school performance.
Lauren Bula: Academic Achievement Award (Highest GPA)