College of Liberal Arts honors students for writing excellence

Diverse subjects involving safety and autonomous automobiles, Black women in computing, and Italian cinema are just some of the winning entries for this year’s student writing awards, sponsored by Rochester Institute of Technology’s College of Liberal Arts.

Sixteen students from numerous colleges at RIT were honored March 18. This year marks the 42nd year the awards were presented.

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A. Sue Weisler

Jolie Crunelle, left, and Uzo Ukekwe, right, recipients of this year’s Mary C. Sullivan Women’s & Gender Studies Writing Award, with Mary C. Sullivan, retired dean of the College of Liberal Arts.

“We are delighted to recognize these exceptional student writers in our RIT community each year,” said Anna Stenport, dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “These awards also spotlight our wonderful faculty who work with many talented students across many disciplines, helping them hone this important skill. We are very proud to honor these winners and bring attention to their outstanding written pieces.”

Faculty committees in each department within the College of Liberal Arts selected student awardees from a number of disciplines whose work embodies the ideals and standards of excellence, creative endeavor, and scholarship.

Awards include the Henry and Mary Kearse Writing Award, created in 1980 thanks to a donation from Henry J. Kearse, founder and president of the construction firm H.J. Kearse Inc., and his wife, Mary, a longtime member of RIT’s Nathaniel Rochester Society.

New this year is the Tina Lent Award for outstanding scholarship in museum studies. Other awards are named in honor of Stan McKenzie and Mary C. Sullivan, both esteemed former deans of the College of Liberal Arts.

The 2022 Kearse Award recipients are:

• Taylor Domico, a fourth-year film and animation major from Wayne, N.J., representing the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures for “Women in the Italian Film Industry: Breaking Norms and Stereotypes.”
• Tyler Mueller, a fourth-year advertising and public relations major from Macedon, N.Y., representing the School of Communication, for “The Motivations Behind the use of Computer-Mediated Communication among College Students.”
• Hannah Hodge, a graduate criminal justice major from Oxford, N.Y., representing the Department of Criminal Justice, for “Protections for Victims of Sex Trafficking.”
• Anna Smiechowski, a fifth-year chemical engineering major from Rutland, Vt., representing the Department of Economics for “Instead of drilling down is it time to reach skywards? How Vermonters are approaching wind energy.”
• Katarina Boss, a second-year illustration major from Wappingers Falls, N.Y., representing the Department of English for “The Long History to a Small, Angry Book.”
• Liam Guthrie, a fourth-year game design and development and history double major from Kenilworth, Ill., representing the Department of History, for “Consuming Empires: British Arctic Exploration and The Franklin Expedition.”
• Kris Edelman, a recent philosophy graduate from Orangeville, Pa., representing the Department of Philosophy, for “The Real Construction of Race.”
• Anthony Ambrose, a fifth-year electrical engineering major from Queens, N.Y., representing the Department of Political Science, for “Sniper Robo-Dogs and a Pipe Dream.”
• Helen Healy, a fourth-year psychology major from Montclair, N.J., representing the Department of Psychology for “Perceived Gender and Its Effects on Intervening Adult Perceptions of Child Conflict.”
• Zachary Eichner, a third-year public policy major from Lexington, Ky., representing the Department of Public Policy for “RE: Automotive Safety and Progression to Autonomous Vehicles in the United States.”
• Lehna Kitzel, a third-year public policy major from Rochester, representing the Department of Sociology and Anthropology for “Hidden Violence: The California Genocide and Settler-Colonialism.”
• Jolie Crunelle, a second-year biomedical engineering major from Charleston, S.C., representing the Department of Science, Technology, and Society, for “Cultivating Trees and Consciousness: The Success of Environmental Activism in Guatemala when Grown through Feminist Social Justice Theory.” She also received the Mary C. Sullivan Women’s & Gender Studies Writing Award.

Other awards include:

• Owen Gebhart, a first-year game design and development major from Wilton, N.H., received the first place Stan McKenzie Endowed Writing Award for “How Hashtag Activism Facilitates Exposing Racial Violence.”
• Rose Silletto, a first-year new media interactive development major from Teaneck, N.J., received the second place Stan McKenzie Endowed Writing Award for “(Re)Birth of a Nation: Memetic Illiteracy and the Lure of the Alt-Right.”
• Uzoamaka “Uzo” Ukekwe, a second-year computer science major from Monroe, N.Y., received the Mary C. Sullivan Women’s & Gender Studies Writing Award for “Documentary: Black Women in Computing – A Century of Women Born for Greatness.”
• Hannah Riley, a fourth-year museum studies major from North Tonawanda, N.Y., received the Tina Lent Award for outstanding scholarship in museum studies for “A Trip to 1967: Psychedelic Posters of 1960s Counterculture.”