Each May, the chapter presents an award for the outstanding honors thesis written by a JMU student. The award, which carries a cash prize, is presented at the Honors College’s Medallion Ceremony.

 

PBK Outstanding Honors Thesis Awardees
Year Awardee Major Thesis Title
2026 Kaelyn Roach Architectural Design Shelters of Strength: Designing Spaces of Healing and Empowerment for Domestic Violence Survivors
2025 Emma F. Llewellyn Public Administration US Policies to Promote Better Health Outcomes Among Medicare Beneficiaries: An Analysis of Three Value-Based Care Reimbursement Models
2024 No award bestowed.   
2023 Colby Sherwood Mathematics Hypercube Graphs and the Representation Theory of Symmetric Groups
2022 No award bestowed.   
2021 Lily Fisher Sociology and Anthropology Undocumented Lives: Exploring Previously Unknown Occupations Predating the Presbyterian Manse, Staunton, VA
2020 Emily Barbaro Political Science Analyzing the Onset and Resolution of Nonstate Conflict in the Middle East & North Africa
2019 Rachel Barborek Biology Detecting the Cold: Do Innexins Function in Cold Nociception?
2018 Kelly Moss Political Science
 Nigerian Terror: The Rise of Boko Haram
2017 Madeline Johnson Sociology Queer University: An Ethnographic Case Study of the Trans Student Experience of College Campus Space
2016 Kirstie Ann Thompson Chemistry The Effect of Hofmeister Series Counterions on the Colloidal and Antimicrobial Properties of Triple-Headed Cationic Amphiphiles
2015 Jacob Bosley Political Science Lexicons of Colonialism: A Grounded Theory Examination of Indian and Supreme Court Definitions of Sovereignty
2014 Matthew Dent Chemistry Understanding metal-organic framework assembly in hydrotris (1,2,4-triazolyl) borate materials
2013 Jessica Holland Biology The Interaction of the Lethal Fungal Pathogen Batrachochytrium Dendrobatidis (Bd) and Combinations of Anti-Bd Bacterial Species
2012 Matthew Wallace Biology Topographic and Patterned Axonal Projections in Control and Mutant Ephrin-B2 Mice Prior to the Onset of Hearing

Back to Top
Phi Beta Kappa
Wilson Hall
951 Madison Drive
Harrisonburg, Virginia 22807