WGSS Undergraduate Student Award Recipients

Each year, the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department honors one or two graduating undergraduate students with the Outstanding Undergraduate Award. This award recognizes an outstanding undergraduate student who has demonstrated exceptional achievement in academic performance, course work, capstone paper, WGSS-related advocacy, and meaningful contributions to the WGSS community.

In addition to maintaining a GPA of 3.8, Hallie has been on the Dean's List 3 times in 2 years of attending UC, interned for the Ion Center for Violence Prevention, where they completed 40 hours of crisis prevention training, shadowed an online crisis hotline, tabled events, and learned about domestic violence resources for the greater Cincinnati population. They have been involved in activism since 2016 by participating in multiple activist activities, including Black Lives Matter protests, Pride events, tabling at employment opportunity events, and attending events for Pro-Palestine organizations. They are also engaged in queer and trans activism and have attended events at Transform Cincy.

Hallie explains that the WGS program at UC has given them a sense of purpose and direction in their life. They have learned the value of listening to lived experiences, systematic oppression, and activism. Their future plans include continuing their education as a graduate student in social work to provide affordable therapy for queer and trans communities. They are also interested in conducting research in trans medical history. They report that none of this would be possible without the support and care of their professors, and they cannot wait to continue their journey in community work.

In addition to maintaining a GPA of 3.7, Gabby has spent her time at UC working with organizations to advance issues that are important to her. She has worked with the organization United for Reproductive and Gender Equity, also known as URGE, where she was active in gathering tens of thousands of signatures to add Issue 1 to the November 2023 Ohio ballot (which passed, codifying the Right to Make Reproductive Decisions Including Abortion into our Ohio Constitution), as well as held events offering services like school supplies, mentoring, job fairs, and food drives for marginalized communities in the Greater Cincinnati Area.

Over the four years she has been at UC, she has also participated in multiple women's rights marches, protesting the right to reproductive freedom. She has also worked to advance the DEI goals of the organization Empower, Learn, Create and tutored other educators who are actively pursuing higher education, offering peer reviews, EBSCOhost assistance, and provided guidance to classes that pertain to writing, critical thinking, and feminist theory.

Through her education in WGS, she has gained a better understanding of herself and what she is passionate about, which is working with and for people. She aims to use her education and training in the skills of theoretical writing, critical thinking, and community engagement to pursue a career that creates a better world and helps educate people on the importance of DEI and social justice.