AWARDS
Karol Wojtyla Medallion for Excellence in Humanities
Before he became bishop of Kracow and eventually Pope Saint John Paul II, Karol Wojtyla was a poet, playwright, and professor of philosophy in Poland. His thought and writings articulate a deeply authentic humanism that is at the foundation of the Department of Humanities. His life bore witness to the vitality and expansive vision that is the fruit of such a humanism. In his encyclical Fides et Ratio, St. John Paul spoke of the love of wisdom that is 鈥渂orn and nurtured when the human being first asked questions about the reason for things and their purpose鈥� and that 鈥渟hows in different modes and forms that the desire for truth is part of human nature itself.鈥� Our medallion winners are students who have not just excelled in their studies but whose love of wisdom has been stirred into a flame during their undergraduate studies. Below you鈥檒l find the full list of our medallion winners since 2005.
2025 Karol Wojtyla Award Winner: Ashleigh Reen
Ashleigh Reen began her time at 草榴社区 studying chemical engineering, but quickly realized that her heart and mind came alive and expanded in the search for truth in philosophy, literature, and theology. After transferring into the College of Arts and Sciences, she joyfully threw herself into everything from ancient Greek verb forms, to Augustine's understanding of love, to contemporary Irish philosophy. She has distinguished herself in the classroom as a Humanities and philosophy double major with a nearly perfect GPA in both programs, not to mention completing a laboratory sciences minor along the way. With the support of a 草榴社区 Undergraduate Research Fellowship and a McCullen Fellowship, Ashleigh has pursued research seminars and internships at the Witherspoon Institute and Abigail Adams Institute, based at Princeton and Harvard respectively. All the while at 草榴社区, she has been a gifted and giving leader, building a vibrant undergraduate community of intellectual fellowship in both Humanities and philosophy. Ashleigh's two senior projects鈥攁n Honors thesis on the metaphysics of gift and a Humanities senior essay on formative education鈥攚ill prepare her well for graduate school in philosophy next year at Boston College.
2024: Christopher Cokinos
2023: Natalie Anderson
2022: Olivia Pfeiffer
2021: Robert Bulka
2020: Timothy Long
2019: Emily LaPorte
2018: Ethan Swain
2017: Gabriella Berman
2016: Hindley Williams
2015: Sara Thoms
2014: Michael Vazquez
2013: Ryan M. Brown
2012: Paul M. Dupont
2011: Paul R. Trahey
2010: Charles A. Gillespie
2009: Madeline A. Chera
2009: Anne Marie Bonner
2008: Loretta A. Vasile
2007: Paul John Gorre
2006: Michael Ostroff
2005: Gregory Grimes
Senior Essay Prize
The Department of Humanities Senior Essay Prize is awarded to a major in the Department of Humanities for an essay that demonstrates excellence, rigor, and wisdom in its sustained engagement with a question deserving renewed attention at the end of the degree. Seeking depth over breadth, students build on texts and issues from the gateway and elective classes to craft a long essay on a question that they identify in conversation with the symposium professor and an additional faculty advisor. Each essay is distinct in its demonstration of students鈥� particular intellectual loves and integrating interdisciplinary topics. Below are our past winners and posters of recent Humanities Senior Essays.
Andrew Patton, 2024, "螘蠀蠂伪蟻喂蟽蟿委伪: Lifting the Veil from Our World of Gift"
Alexander Fezza, 2023, "Should We Just 'Let People Enjoy Things?': An Examination of Pleasure and Popular Appeal as Bases for Value Judgments"
Carrie Sweeney, 2022, "The Art Form that Keeps Opening and Opening: Poetry as a Way of Knowing"
Casey O'Donnell, 2021, "The Song of Creation: A Divine Love Song Transposed"
Caroline Arnold, 2020, "Insignes pietate viri: Virgil, Augustine, and Dante on the Virtue of Piety"
Keenan D. Lynch, 2010, "A Better Search for the "Better Place": Consideration of Hannah Coulter with regard to the State of Happiness Today"
Madeline A. Chera, 2009, "Counterculture and Communion: Beyond Industrial Systems for a Fuller Understanding of Food"
Baron Alt
"Humanity in the Age of Technology"
What does it mean to be human?
Jake Caselli
"Distorted Success: Education as Total Work"
How has modern American work culture shaped the prevailing notion of 鈥渟uccess鈥� in education? What does it mean to be truly successful?
Hope Frantz
"From Burnout to Balance: Lessons on Work, Rest, & Fulfillment"
How can one truly maintain a successful relationship between work and rest? How can one excel in a time-consuming vocation but maintain rest and a healthy self?
Meredith Green
"Foundations of the Feminine: How Our Understanding of Human Nature Implicates Women鈥檚 Rights"
How can approaching women鈥檚 equality and dignity from Liberalism fall short? Can a Catholic understanding of human dignity and created-ness serve as a good foundation for women鈥檚 rights?
Catherine Gunther
"Identity: To Define or to Discover"
What are the mistakes made in constructing one鈥檚 identity? Is it possible to construct an identity which frees one but sufficiently answers the question of what one ought to do?
Eddie Kahn
"Love as the Common Good: The Family & the Parish in Society"
How should the family be oriented towards and integrated into society? Why are families important formative institutions, what pressures do they face, and how should they respond?
Kirti Kaur
"The Disorder of the World: Who to Blame and How to Cope"
How does the uncontrollability of the world lead itself to an anti-theodical argument? How can one live a good life in a world void of an absolute meritocracy?
Emma Kronenberg
"Finitude & Feasting: The Gifts that Bind Us to Others, Our Nature, & the World"
What is a gift? What gifts are we given that allow us to belong to the infinite, and why? How should we use these gifts? How do we use these gifts? Who gives us these gifts?
Victoria Leone
"Membership vs. an Untethered Life: The Importance of Family for Flourishing"
How is family needed for human flourishing? How can you strengthen connections in your community by living intentionally?
Cameron Logan
"The Art of Discovery, the Science of Meaning: Unraveling the Unified Fabric of Knowledge"
What is the efficacy of the principle of NOMA in attaining knowledge and can it be used to bring about resonance in the field of science?
Grace Maresca
"Rediscovering Love in a Broken & Disoriented World"
Is our understanding of love too 鈥渋dealized,鈥� or does it reflect a fundamental reality of human existence? Some argue that love must be given and accepted freely鈥攂ut are there limits?
Sam Matro
"The American Paragon: Analyzing Lincoln through Augustine & Nietzsche"
Can a political leader truly ever be virtuous? Does Abraham Lincoln embody Augustine鈥檚 鈥渨ise judge鈥� from The City of God, or is he more like Nietzsche's Ubermensch?
Joe Morace
"From Passion to Profit: How Sports Exploit Fan Loyalty"
How do sports function as a quasi-religion by shaping personal virtue, fostering community, and creating sacred spaces? What lessons can we learn about fandom?
Sean Murphy
"A Call to Destiny: Discovering One鈥檚 Inner Artist Through Work"
What role does one鈥檚 vocation play in discovering one鈥檚 personhood and leading a good life?
Andrew Nguyen-Lepczyk
"The Beauty of Loss: How We Find Ourselves After Loss"
How do we reorient ourselves after loss?
Zachary Rampelt
"Pointing Towards the God-Shaped Vacuum: Why AA Still Acknowledges a Higher Power"
Can medical problems require theological solutions?
Ashleigh Reen
"Growing into Dependence: Lessons from Childhood"
How does the child illustrate the interwoven nature of the human person鈥檚 independence and dependence? Does one grow out of or into dependency as one matures?
Mary Swartzberg
"Forgive Thy Neighbor? Exploring Responses to Extreme Wrongdoing"
What are the implications of the Christian call to forgiveness in the context of extreme wrongdoing? Where might efforts of 鈥渇orgiveness鈥� impede virtue?
Lillian Tracy
"Locked Out of Heaven: A Modern Catholic Critique of John Locke鈥檚 鈥淪econd Treatise of Government鈥�"
How can modern Catholic thinkers answer some of the fundamental problems of liberal modernism found in John Locke鈥檚 鈥淪econd Treatise of Government鈥�?
Jonathan VerSchneider
"Coloring Inside & Outside the Lines: Drawing Self-Love from Life鈥檚 Fractures"
How do I love myself in a way that orients me toward the good without being blind to the destruction I have caused and will cause?鈥�