May 4, 2015
Psychological sciences honors students with departmental awards
The psychological sciences department has selected this year's departmental award winners. These undergraduate and graduate students were honored at an event on April 28.
Chase Kitterman, senior, South Coffeyville, Oklahoma, received the John C. Peterson Undergraduate Scholarship Prize for outstanding graduating senior. He is the current president of the K-State Psi Chi Honor Society and was an undergraduate research assistant for Heather Bailey in the Aging and Memory lab. Kitterman will be pursuing an educational specialist degree in school psychology at Oklahoma State University this fall.
Derrick Till, senior, Peabody, is this year's recipient of the E. Jerry Phares Undergraduate Research Award. His research was funded by a 2014-2015 Shanteau Award during which he studied social vigilantism — the tendency to feel that one's personal beliefs are superior to others' beliefs resulting in attempts to impress those beliefs on others. This fall, Till will be a doctoral student at the University of Arkansas where he will be investigating factors that affect political ideologies.
Victoria Lehmann, junior, Eudora, is the inaugural winner of the Curtis Lee and JB Gee Psychological Sciences Scholarship. She is involved in the Mortar Board Senior Honor Society as director of internal development, Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, Psi Chi Honor Society, and a mentor for the Kansas State Advancement of Women in Science and Engineering program. Lehmann also received the Corrections Corporation for America Scholarship from the sociology department.
Kelsey Couture, junior, Great Bend; Emily Jorgenson, junior, Blue Springs, Missouri; and Lukas Sprick, junior, Osborne, are this year's recipients of the Doreen Shanteau Undergraduate Research Awards. The award provides funds to enable these students to conduct research with their faculty mentors during the following academic year. Couture will be examining measurement issues in the field of optimal work flow while working with Patrick Knight. Jorgenson will study a rat model of predicting binge drinking and subsequent affective disorders while working with Mary Cain. Sprick will work on a project involving the rat's response to novelty and how it predicts the motivation to earn an ethanol reinforcer, also in Cain's lab.
The Outstanding Graduate Research Award/Harry Helson Memorial Scholarship had two winners this year, Lora Adair, Crestview, Florida; and Andrew Marshall, North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Adair just defended her doctoral dissertation on fertility decision-making under the supervision of Gary Brase and will be an assistant professor at Lyon College in Arkansas this fall. Marshall is conducting research on the psychological mechanisms governing individual differences in risky and impulsive choice behavior in rats with Kimberly Kirkpatrick. Adair and Marshall have published a significant number of journal articles and book chapters during their time at K-State.
The Outstanding Graduate Instructor Award also had two winners this year, Lora Adair and Whitney Jeter, Southlake, Texas. Adair also was the winner of the College of Arts and Sciences Stamey Teaching Award, and Jeter won both the K-State Graduate Student Council Teaching Award and the University Presidential Award for Teaching by a Graduate Teaching Assistant. The recipients received monetary awards thanks to the Nobuko S. Nicholson Opportunity Fund for Psychological Sciences.
Finally, Chelsea Schnabelrauch Arndt, Pinckney, Michigan, was the department's winner of the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award. Schnabelrauch Arndt has been a graduate teaching assistant for the department's Psych 350 Research Methods course for three years and the lead graduate teaching assistant for the class for the past two years. Her award was funded by the department's Graduate Teaching Assistant Support Fund.