Students honored for outstanding library research at annual Winesett Awards ceremony
The finalists and winners of the 2019 Winesett Awards for Library Research were honored on April 26 at a special ceremony in McConnell Library.
Funded by the Hazel Grove Winesett Endowment and administered by the Radford University Foundation, the awards are made annually at the end of the spring semester to recognize the academic year’s most creative and original library research by undergraduate students.
Top prizes are granted to the students with projects that best illustrate the use of McConnell Library’s valuable tools and available resources.
The contest judges were Winesett Awards Committee Co-chairs Lisa Dinkle, instruction librarian, and Alyssa Archer, instruction librarian, as well as Sandi Schneider, educational research and foundations professor; Pei-Chun Tsai, psychology professor; Matthias Naleppa, social work professor; and Max Bowman, resource sharing librarian.
“We received many amazing applications this year, with thoughtfully written and reflective essays describing the library’s role in strengthening research skills,” Archer said. “We reviewed wonderful projects, fully displaying the creativity, persistence and thought-provoking topics in which our Radford University students are engaged, and saw the enthusiastic support and mentorship of our faculty for their students.”
The finalists, who each received $100, are:
- Taylor Jones for “Justice Antonin Scalia's Constitutional Originalism,” nominated by Luke Hunt;
- Kaitlyn Partenen for “The Path of Silence: Soviet Policy Toward the Red Army on the Eve of World War II,” nominated by Suzanne Ament;
- Savannah Penven for “Nancy Spero: The Feminine Experience through Visual Language," nominated by Roann Barris;
- Lauren Seedlock for “Animal Diversity Web: Lampropeltis calligaster,” nominated by Karen Powers; and
- Lucas White for “Pride Media: The Effects of LGBTQ+ Representation in Media,” nominated by Nancy Taylor.
The winners, who each received $800, are:
- Lauren Buenviaje for “Gender in Organizations: Managing Sex Discrimination,” sponsored by Niels Christensen;
- Logan Rexford Platt for “Animal Diversity Web: Aspidoscelis Uniparens,” nominated by Karen Powers;
- Claire Dundon for “Cultural Duality: Finding a Voice in Chinese and American Culture through The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts,” nominated by April Asbury; and
- Rebecca Radinsky for “Truancy, Dropout and Motivational Interviewing: A Survey of Educators,” sponsored by Kerry Vandergrift.
The annual library research contest was named in honor of 1938 alumna Hazel Winesett, a lifelong educator from Pulaski, who is remembered as a woman with a warm and modest heart and a love for traveling. Upon her death in 2002, Winesett left the McConnell Library an $820,000 endowment, the largest such gift to-date that the library has received.
Her gift provides an opportunity for the library to implement many projects, including the Winesett Awards. In addition to the annual library research award contest, the Winesett Endowment has been utilized to help fund numerous initiatives, such as expanding resources, upgrading furnishings and equipment and establishing the McConnell Library Archives and Special Collections' annual Winesett Book Collecting Contest.
Copies of this year's prize-winning papers will be permanently housed in the McConnell Library University Archives and can be digitally accessed online from the Winesett Awards for Library Research Collection Archives.