Fall 2021 Borine Award Recipients

Each year, graduating psychology undergraduates are tasked with completing a capstone project to explore an area of interest. The Sharon Borine Capstone Award was created to acknowledge students whose capstone projects were of the highest quality. The award process consists of nomination by section leaders followed by review and selection by an ad hoc panel of faculty members.

Congratulations to the Fall 2021 recipients: Aparna Nair, Clara Bils, and Jordyn Obey.

 
 

Aparna Nair received a cash award of $250 for first place for her paper titled, “White Matter Response Predictors and Changes Associated With Ketamine Infusions in Treatment-Resistant Depression.”

She will be graduating in the Spring of 2022 with a major in Psychology and minors in Developmental Psychology and Neuroscience. After gaining some more research experience, Aparna plans to apply to Ph.D. programs in Clinical Psychology and hopes to build a career in psychopathology research.

Nair is particularly interested in research that focuses on understanding and treating mood disorders and suicidal ideation, which was also the focus of her capstone project. “I am fascinated by the role of neuroplasticity in the pathology and treatment of depression and so was thrilled to have a chance to use neuroimaging data from a ketamine treatment trial for Major Depressive Disorder through the Research in Adolescent Depression (RAD) Lab.” Her mentors in the RAD Lab are Dr. Bonnie Klimes-Dougan and Dr. Kathryn Cullen.

 

Clara Bils was awarded 2nd place for their paper titled “The Role of Perceived Support in Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: Differences Between Sexual Minority and Non-Sexual Minority Youth.” They received a cash award of $150.

Bils is graduating in Fall 2021 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a minor in Integrative Neuroscience. Outside of school and research, they work as a mental health technician in a local group home and volunteer as a crisis counselor. Clara hopes to attend a doctoral program in clinical psychology in Fall 2022 with a particular interest in severe psychopathology and minority mental health.

Currently, Clara volunteers as a study coordinator under Dr. Bonnie Klimes-Dougan in the (RAD) Lab. The study, in collaboration with the Minority Stress Lab (PI: Dr. Richard Douglass), focuses on the sexual minority stress response. Using data from a previous RAD Lab study, Clara combined their interest in LGBTQ+ mental health with the RAD Lab's extensive research on non-suicidal self-injury to examine the intersection between sexual minority identity and self-harm in a sample of 92 adolescents.

 

Jordyn Obey for the paper titled, “Young Black Girls: Pushed Out of U.S Educational System through Harsh Discipline” received 3rd place and a cash prize of $75.

Obey graduated in the Fall of 2021 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and minored in Leadership and Sociology. After graduation, She is moving to San Francisco to work at a construction company as the HR Coordinator. I will use my degree in Psychology to help interact with people of all backgrounds, mainly because the construction field has a wide variety of people.

Jordyn is interested in anti-racist work and chose this topic based on a book she read last summer called Pushout by Monique W. Morris. “I learned how the education system is based on White supremacy in that it caters to the majority. I chose to dive into the research to specify what may be causing the higher rates of the discipline of young Black girls. If we can pinpoint what is causing the disparity, we have a better chance of dismantling and effectively changing the systems.”

Obey’s informal faculty mentor was Marti Hope Gonzales; she took a few of her classes in my undergraduate career and was inspired by her outspoken nature. Obey says “she was also easy to talk to, and I felt like she cared about my growth and development.”

Composed by Flora Pollack, communications assistant.

Share on: