Faculty Names Hoopes Winners

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences officially named on Monday the 71 student and faculty winners of the prestigious Thomas T. Hoopes Class of 1919 Prizes, which honor the best senior theses.

The Hoopes prize is awarded to a senior thesis writer and his or her adviser. Student recipients receive a $2,500 cash prize for their projects, while thesis advisers receive $750 for their efforts.

Most recipients plan to use the award money for travel or graduate school expenses, but Raphael S. Schoenle ’04 said he has not decided how he will spend his winnings.

“I really haven’t decided what to do with the award money,” said Schoenle, who will pursue a PhD in economics at Princeton next year. “I’ll probably travel.”

For his thesis, “Evidence on the Determinants and Formation of Carpooling,” Schoenle analyzed statistical data to show the relationship between carpooling and trust among people. He said that over the last 20 years the decreases in the practice of carpooling coincided with decreasing trust among people.

“I really enjoyed doing the project,” Schoenle ’04 said. “I am very happy with the outcome.”

While the public announcement came on Monday, winners were notified last Thursday.

“I was very excited to receive the letter on Thursday evening,” said Noah M. McCormack ’04. “I was just out the door on the way to the Fogg formal where I had some celebratory drinks.”

McCormack discussed the formation of the first political party in his thesis entitled, “A Party to Remember: The Earl of Shaftesbury and the Origins of Political Parties in England 1667-1677.” McCormack will begin history graduate school at Harvard next year.

Matthew R. Ciardiello ’04, another recipient of the award, credited his adviser for helping him win the prize. The Hoopes prize honors both the student and the faculty adviser for the thesis.

“My adviser, Professor Jan Ziolkowski, deserves this award as much as I do,” said Matthew Ciardiello ’04. “He was a great resource for my research.”

In his thesis, “Eulogy and Encomium: The Dual Purpose on the Normannicus Draco,” Ciardiello examined a relatively unstudied medieval Latin poem.

While next year Ciardiello will work in investment banking, he said his thesis experience may influence his future plans.

“I might want to come back and study comparative literature,” Ciardiello said. “I enjoyed the thesis, and might like academia.”

Not only written work received honors. For example, “Selective Memory,” a multimedia installation by Grace M. Catenaccio ’04, also received the award. In her project, currently on display at the Carpenter Center, Catenaccio recreated memories of her childhood using two- and three-dimensional elements, as well as sound and video.

“Recreating the past is a futile, infinite task,” said Catenaccio. “Connecting things and recording life is simultaneously impossible and completely imperative. You can’t do it, and yet you have to do it. This is one of the human struggles.”

Other winners were also influenced by their backgrounds. Jason J. Kohout ’04, a Wisconsin native, wrote his senior thesis on the revenue limitations facing his home state’s school system.

“I researched this issue at home where it is a great concern,” said Kohout, who will attend Harvard Law School next fall. “I found that revenue limitations have no effect on academic performance in Wisconsin.”

Many of the honored theses were the result of summers filled with research and sometimes, entire college careers.

Abigail K. Joseph ’04 spent two summers in England viewing collections of Victorian pornography for her thesis entitled, “Pornomania: Sex and Bibliography in Victorian England.”

Joseph, who will be attending graduate school for English at Columbia in the fall, said winning the Hoopes prize was a longtime goal for her.

“I was hoping to win the award ever since freshman year,” Joseph said. “It is really great to win the award.”

The complete list of 71 award winner and seven honorable mention is as follows:

In Adams House, Grace M. Catenaccio ’04, Judd B. Kessler ’04, Venu A. Nadella ’04, Molly R. Perkins ’04, Christopher J. Phillips ’04, Jessica M. Rosenberg ’04, Reid D. Saaris ’04 and Saurabh Sanghvi ’04. Christopher A. Lamie ’04 received an honorable mention.

In Cabot House, Susan J. Huang ’04, Ian R. MacKenzie ’04 and Nathan R. Perl-Rosenthal ’04. Kayla Y. Rosen ’04 and Feng Zhang ’04 received honorable mentions.

In Currier House, Melissa May Borja ’04, Adrien C. Finlay ’03-’04, Megan J. Robertson ’04 and Chia-Jung Tsay ’04,

In Dunster House, Carrol J. Chang ’04, Gabriel A. Katsh ’04, Bram J. Levy ’04, Nathalie Miller ’04, Anne T. Nguyen ’04, Caitlin E. Stork ’04 and Previn Warren ’04.

In Eliot House, Andrew J. Kallem ’04, Christine M. Murray ’04, Brian P. Quinn ’04 and James M. Schaffer ’04. Andre R. Kydd ’04 received an honorable mention.

In Kirkland House, Jason S. Alcorn ’04, Daniel S. Hong ’04, Jakub J. Kabala ’04, Madiha Y. Sattar ’04. Dimitar P. Jetchev ’04 received an honorable mention.

In Leverett House, John L. Beshears ’04, Emily S. Caplan ’04, Matthew R. Ciardiello ’04, Christopher T. Conlon ’04, Uzodinma C. Iweala ’04 and Emily Louise Nielson ’04.

In Lowell House, Alinna W. Chung ’04, John N.K. Francis ’04, Hannah E. Kenser ’04, Christopher M. Loomis ’04, Karolina Maciag ’04, Catherine H. Romatowski ’04, Raphael S. Schoenle ’04, Joel A. Steinhaus ’04, Joshua S. Stenberg ’04 and David A. Troiano ’04. Thaddeus R.F. Fulford-Jones ’04 received an honorable mention.

In Mather House, Deborah B. Doroshow ’04, Rozalina Grubina ’04 and Nilah Monnier ’04.

In Pforzheimer House, William F. Andress ’04, Melissa A. Eccleston ’04, Moira L. Hill ’04, Leslie Sierra Jamison ’04, Kate D. Nesin ’03-’04, Matthew N. Ocheltree ’04, Alexander A. Pollen ’04, Benjamin I. Schapira ’04 and Sylvia Yang ’04. Jyoti S. Kandlikar ’04 received an honorable mention.

In Quincy House, Rebecca N.E. Dizon-Ross ’04, Catherine A. Honeyman ’04, Jason J. Kohout ’04, Noah M. McCormack ’04, Gladden J. Pappin ’04 and Aaron M. Udager ’04.

In Winthrop House, Suzanne J. Podhurst ’04.

Other winners include Marie Cody ’03, Lindsay A. Coleman ’03, Abigail K. Joseph ’04, Joseph F. Keefe ’04, David J. Plunkett ’04, and Ann Matthew Rigazio ’03.

—Staff writer Jane V. Evans can be reached at jvevans@fas.harvard.edu.