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Eileen Nelson Scholarship for Senior Excellence
The Eileen Nelson Scholarship honors the contributions of emeritus faculty member Eileen Nelson, by recognizing a student who has exemplary involvement in the honors thesis program, vigor in research and service, excellence in academic achievement, and the intention to pursue graduate education in psychology. The scholarship provides $1000 in scholarship assistance to the award winner during their senior year. This scholarship was made possible by the generous donations of the family and friends of Dr. Eileen Nelson.
You can contribute to this fund by making a donation online as described at http://psyc.jmu.edu/ug/visitors/needs.html . When making your donation please specify that your donation is intended to contribute to the Eileen Nelson Scholarship in the “Other Designation” field on the form.
2009 Award Recipients
- Allyson Vasi
Allyson Vasi - Allyson currently serves as the Coordinator of Peer Advising and the Secretary of Psi Chi. Allyson was the recipient of the Junior Peer Advising Award last year, and also received the Outstanding Achievement in Statistics and Research Methods Award. Additionally, she is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. This year, Allyson is conducting her honors thesis project with Dr. Irons. She is investigating the effects of contingency management on increasing fitness behavior in college women. Parts of her thesis have been included in an invited manuscript that is currently under final review. Her thesis has been accepted for presentation at the Association for Psychological Science convention in May, 2009 and has been submitted for presentation (with follow-up data) for the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies in November 2009. Last May, Allyson contributed to a professional presentation on the use of contingency management in a classroom setting at the Association for Behavioral Analysis in Chicago. She served as a Teaching Assistant for Dr. Evans last year in the "Preparing for a Job in Psychology" class, and she is currently serving as a Teaching Assistant for Dr. Irons in Psychology 211. With Peer Advising, Allyson has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, Special Olympics, Relay for Life, a Grief Camp for kids, and the annual Food Fight Against Hunger, and she has also served as a Tutor at Plains Elementary School. Allyson plans on pursuing graduate work in the medical field.
2008 Award Recipient
- Allison Brown has been nominated for this year’s Eileen Nelson Scholarship. Allison began her undergraduate psychology career as a member of the Psychology Freshmen Learning Community (PLC) in 2004. As a member of the PLC, Allison excelled in her psychology methodology coursework, and her early efforts were first recognized by the Department of Psychology when she received the Outstanding Achievement in Statistics and Research Award. Since that time, Allison has conducted numerous independent research projects that have led to an impressive body of scholarship. In fact, she already has conducted work that has been presented at one regional conference, two national conferences, and one international conference. She also has one in press publication, one successfully funded grant submission, and one university program evaluation report. Much of Allison’s work focuses on well-being or program evaluation, and she is currently conducting a Senior Honors Thesis to develop a new multi-dimensional measure on college student life satisfaction. Allison’s excellence pervades everything she does. She has maintained a near perfect GPA. She has also challenged herself by taking two graduate psychology statistics courses. She has shared her interest in research and statistics by serving as a Psyc 212-213 teaching assistant and a statistics tutor with the Math Department. Next year, Allison hopes to attend a PhD program in assessment and measurement.
2007 Award Recipient
- John Magnotti has been named the winner of the Eileen Nelson Scholarship for 2007. John was one of the winners of the James J. Hart Memorial Award for Outstanding Juniors during 2006. After completing Dr. Natalie Kerr's Honors General Psychology class, he decided to double-major in Psychology and Computer Science. He is among the students with the highest GPA's among seniors at JMU. He has found many ways to combine his interests in Psychology and Computer Science including assisting Drs. Natalie Kerr and Tracy Zinn develop an online teaching newsletter, and by developing computer programs for psychological data collection for projects supervised by several psychology faculty. He has worked on several research projects that have resulted in four poster presentations at conferences. John’s Honors Thesis will compare Interteaching to Just-In-Time teaching in a lab environment. His project was recently approved by JMU for submission to NCUR. John has recently accepted an offer to attend Auburn University’s Experimental Psychology doctoral program.
2006 Award Recipient
- Jason Matthew Kain has been named the first winner of the Eileen Nelson Scholarship. Jason is a double major in Psychology and Kinesiology. He is planning to pursue a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology. He hopes to become a motivation and leadership consultant, and eventually own his own I/O Psychology consulting firm. Consistent with his interests in motivation and leadership, he has been working with Kenn Barron within the Motivation Research Institute (http://www.jmu.edu/assessment/MRI.shtml) and is completing an honors thesis titled "Linking college students’ adaptive and maladaptive behaviors to achievement goal theory: An exploratory mixed- method design" Jason has an excellent academic record and has made the President's List for five semesters. In addition to his research endeavors and outstanding academic record, Jason is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, the Golden Key Honor Society, and he is an active member of the JMU chapter of Psi Chi where his contributions this semester earn him “gold status” for next semester. He has participated in a number of community service activities and has been President of the JMU Office of Residence Life Community Council.
2005 Award Recipients
- Kristina Austin – Kristina has assisted in Dr. Sherry Serdikoff’s Laboratory for the Analysis of Behavior, where she worked on numerous independent study projects investigating the abuse liability of ephedrine and investigating an animal model of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity disorder. This work has resulted in several conference presentations on which she has been a co-author, as well as being the co-recipient of a research grant from the Virginia Academy of Science and a grant from Psi Chi, the National Honor Society in Psychology. Kristina’s service activities include volunteering at the Sunnyside Retirement Home, internship with the Virginia Beach Public Schools, and Head Start Program volunteer at Stone Spring Elementary School in Harrisonburg . Kristina is a member of the Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity and is serving as the Vice-President of the JMU Chapter for Phi Chi. She made the JMU Dean’s List and the JMU President’s list, and is currently serving as an undergraduate teaching assistant in Psychology of Learning. Kristina is also completing an honors thesis.
- Sarah Horsey - Sarah has assisted Drs. Suzie Baker, Tammy Gilligan, and Kenn Barron with a variety of research projects. She worked two semesters on a comparative psychology study, including data gathering and analysis. She co-authored a grant for the Well-Being Team, and continued this research from 2003 to 2004. She is also doing an honors thesis. Sarah’s service includes tutoring, working at CASA, an independent study at the Counseling and Student Development Center , and two semesters at the Batterer’s Treatment Program. Outside the department, she has worked with Caregiver’s Community Network, Adopt-a-Grandmother, and has had two different positions in a program that teaches independent living skills and vocational skills.
- Rebecca Tull - Rebecca is doing an honors thesis. She has also been a research assistant for Dr. Steve Evans in the Challenging Horizons Program, and completed a field placement (Psyc 495) at the JMU Child Development Center . She has contributed to several conference presentations and symposiums at Madison Day, the Raising the Bar conference, and the APA conference in Honolulu , HI . Service includes being a tutor, working with Acting Out, and child care for special needs children. Rebecca has received awards including being chosen to apply to the National Conference of Undergraduate Research and a Department of Psychology Award for an excellent research poster at the 2004 symposium.
Past Award Recipients
2004
- Lindsay Barnett
- Melissa Shulleeta
- Elizabeth Williams
2003
- Katherine Gerber
- M. Kathleen Holmes
- Johanna Smith
2002
- Linda Nugent
Contribute to the Eileen Nelson Award
When making a donation, use the “Gift Designation: Other” field to specify Eileen Nelson Scholarship (Account: 25624/65624). Your contribution can be accepted online. See http://psyc.jmu.edu/ug/visitors/needs.html for more information.
