Winners of 2016 Winesett Awards for Library Research honored at semester's end

The winners of the 2016 Winesett Awards for Library Research were announced and celebrated in McConnell Library on April 29.

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.

The top prizes were granted to students whose papers or projects best illustrate the exemplary use of McConnell Library’s tools, resources and development of information-gathering tools.

Winners in the upper division (seniors and juniors) were:

  • Racheal Downey for “’What’s in a name?’ Names and philology as narrative elements in Tolkien’s fiction,” nominated by Professor Kim Gainer.
  • Katie Nelson for “Impact of lung cancer on Wise County,” nominated by Professor Erin Cruise.

Winners in the lower division (freshmen and sophomores) were:

  • Miracle Davis for “Phalacrocorax atriceps,” by Professor Karen Powers.
  • Travis Fultz for “Trans is not fake,” nominated by Professor Nancy Taylor.

Five student finalists were also named:

  • Jada Downing for “Monolingualism for the American Dream,” nominated by Professor Matthew Madre.
  • Jenna McClintock for “The impact of substance use on college student success and welfare,” nominated by Professor Riane Bolin.
  • Mary McElwee for “The effect of violent video games on young children,” nominated by Stacy Penven.
  • Sarah Rainey for “Clarias batrachus,” nominated by Professor Karen Powers.
  • Matthew Van Shufflin for “American involvement in Afghanistan: Is it her war to fight?” nominated by Tracey Mattson.

The annual library research contest was named in honor of 1938 alumna Hazel Winesett, a lifelong educator from Pulaski who was remembered as a woman with a warm and modest heart who loved to travel. On her death in 2002, Winesett left the McConnell Library an $820,000 endowment, the largest such gift that the library had received.

Her gift allowed the library to implement many projects, including the Winesett awards. In addition to the annual library research award contest, the Winesett endowment has been used 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.

 

May 9, 2016