Undergraduate Awards

Leo Meltzer Award

This award was established many years ago to celebrate the contributions of Professor Leo Meltzer to this Department, which he served from 1963 until 1990. Professor Meltzer was a distinguished scholar, an internationally recognized social psychologist, a wonderful colleague, and a dedicated teacher at Cornell. In light of Dr. Meltzer’s devotion to undergraduate education, his colleagues and family established an award to honor the best undergraduate thesis in the field of social psychology, broadly defined.

Year	Name	Paper title
2024	Tamara Frith	"Systemically Impoverished: The Role of the Criminal Justice System in the Experience of Persistent Poverty among Single Black Mothers"
2023	Isabella Ghafour	"The Visible and Invisible Elements of Religious Identity: A Qualitative Study on Cornell University's Religious Communities"
2022	Catherine Zhang	"The Social Construction of Career Aspirations Among Cornell Undergraduates"
2021	Jasmine Scott	“Crit Walking Through the World Language Classroom”
2020	Sydni Green	"Navigating Between Boundaries: The Experience of Biracial Individuals in Finding Identity"
2019	Julia Pagán Andréu	"Intersectional Beauty: How Beauty Influencers Create their Identities Online"
2019	Karen Loya	"Latinx in Higher Education: How Universities Influence Identity"
2018	David Brotz	"Body Alteration and Class: A Study of Inequality in Look."
2017	Yooha Park	“Examining the Contribution of Different Social Relationships to Immigrant Health Inequalities in the United States”
2017	Emma Korolik	“ When Diverse College Classes Fall Shor of Social Class Diversity: Examining the Effects of Socioeconomic Status on Students’ Choice of Undergraduate Major”
2016	Jennifer Chun	“Under the Knife: The Social Pressures and Influences of Plastic Surgery on Second-Generation Korean American Women”
2015	Daniel Rubin	“From the Court to Culture: Supreme Court Decisions on Gay Rights Issues and Changes in Public Attitudes toward Homosexual Relationships, 1973-2014”
2014	Dominique Corley	“Sounding Guilty: African American English and Racial Inequality in the Courtroom”
2014	Fiona McCabe	“Persisting Educational Inequality in a College For All Era: Aspirational Fulfillment of Community College Students”
2013	Zoe Wong	“Making a Difference vs. Making Money: Social Value Orientation as a Predictor of College Students’ Career Motivations”
2012	Bethany Nichols	“The Black-White Gap in Educational Confidence and Spending Preferences”
2011	Dayna Zolle	“Gender and Judicial Decision Making: An Examination of Supreme Court Opinion in Sex Discrimination Cases (1961-2005)”
2010	Meaghan McMahon	“An Institutional Analysis of the Green House Project and its Transformation of Long-Term Care for the Elders”
2009	Shanel Fields	“The Self-Segregation of African American Students on the Cornell Campus”
2008	Christy Kidner	“ ‘Looks’ Like She Means Business: Appearance Norm Conformity and Women’s Occupational Aspirations”
2007	Christopher Frank	“Hegemonic Masculinity and Same-sex Friendships”
2006	Shana Platz	“Hearing the Voices of Abused and Neglected Children: An Examination of Representation for Children in Protection Proceedings and the Implications for Child Welfare”
2005	Kaprisha Cressel	“Alternative Career Choices For Nevada Women: Exotic Dancers in Las Vegas”
2005	Heather Ferguson	“What Messages Do Your Children’s Books Hold: Predominant Themes In Award Winning And Best Selling Children’s Picture Books From Twentieth Century America”
2004	Lauren Polakoff	“Gender Roles and Gender’s Role: Gender in Advertising”
2004	Megan Kamil	“The Relationship Between Trust and Reputation “

Robert Wertheimer Award

Robert Wertheimer is a former sociology major who graduated with honors in sociology. He remains devoted to both the field of sociology, to the Cornell Sociology department, and to the University. As a tribute to his contributions, the department recently established a prize for the best paper or thesis outside the field of social psychology (and hence not eligible for the Meltzer award).

Year	Name	Paper title
2024	Alicia González	"Museum Networks: Influence and Innovation in New York City Museums"
2023	Danika Cho	"Accessing Abortion in Post-Roe America: Censorship, Surveillance, and Network Collapse in States that Have Banned Abortion"
2022	Alexandra Gibbons	"Place, Race, and Punishment: A Spatial Analysis of Incarceration in New York State"
2021	Ruizhe Huang	“Weaving the Fabric of Entrepreneurship: A Two-Mode Network Model of Startups’ Survival”
2020	Beth Gentsch	"Why CrossFit? A Study on Female Strength, Fitness, and Empowerment"
2019	Katherine Lynch	"The Optional Buy Out and the Imperative Buy In: A Comparison of 'Teachers' Perceptions of Parent Involvement in Socioeconomically Advantaged Versus Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Schools
2018	Ming Zhe Choong	"The Impacts of College Textbooks Costs on Cornell Undergraduates"
2017	Beatriz Barros	“Mind the Gap: A Study of Inequality in Public Transportation Access in Baltimore City, Maryland”
2016	Christie Abel	“Renegotiating Privacy, Audience and Self-Presentation A Sociological Study of Snapchat Users”
2015	Alyssa Webb	“At the Forefront of Integration: A Descriptive Analysis of Mixed Income Neighborhoods in the City of Chicago”
2014	Kyle Chang	“Framing Society: A Study of Spy Films From 1963–2013”
2013	Visha Meyer	“Neighborhood Disorder and Fear in a College Town: A Study of the Role of Shared Organizational Affiliation”
2012	Harrison Warren	“A Puzzling Silence: Understanding Honor and Omeritá in Sicily”
2011	Theodore Leenman	“Class Congruence: Regularity and Control in the Home and Classroom”
2010	Kimberly Leung	Awarded for having the highest GPA.
2009	Jeffrey Javed	“Legal-Institutionalism, Political Opportunities, and Environmental Contention in Post-Mao China”
2008	Marielle Macher	“Immigrant Farmworker Social Integration in Rural New York”
2007	Anny Fenton	“The Motivations Behind the Rise in Nationalist Party Support in London Over the Past Decade”
2006	Elisabeth Becker	“Kosovar Political Migrants and Narration of the Nation: Homeland Cosmopolitans and Ethnic Chauvinists Abroad”
2005	Sarah Lee	“Same Only Story in the “New” South Africa: Post-apartheid Racial and Gender Inequality”
2004	Asa Wilks	“The Spatial Concentration of Affluence in Urban America, 1990-2000”
2004	Freya Estreller	“I was a Door-to-Door Salesman: An Ethnographic Examination of the Organizational Structure and Culture of a Direct Sales and Marketing Firm”