Writing With Impact: Dickinson Bestows 2025 Writing, Research Awards
![The recipients of this year's writing and research awards display their certificates. Photo by Stephen Munchel.](/images/20250226_Research_and_Writing_Awards_SM_012.jpg")
Photo by Stephen Munchel.
Students honored for exceptional work in literature and science
by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson
Strong communication and research skills are critical to success in college and in daily life. And Dickinson recently honored five students who are knocking it out of the park, writing exemplary research papers across a spectrum of subjects and fields.
The students—four first-year students and one junior—were the star attractions during a Writing & Research Awards ceremony and reception in the Waidner-Spahr Library. Sponsored by Dickinson’s library and writing program staff, the Feb. 26 event included short addresses by college leaders and by the honorees, who each received a certificate and a monetary prize. In public remarks and subsequent conversations, the awardees reflected on the importance of effective writing in the sciences, the insights that arise from close reading and research and their excitement in sharing their work.
Beyond good and evil
Lily Fromm ’28 and Eliott Pelletier ’28 were the recipients of this year’s First Year Seminar Excellence in Writing Award. The competition is open to any member of the first-year class who submits an essay written during their first semester at college.
Fromm wrote about morality and justice in the context of systemic oppression, as depicted in Toni Morrison’s classic Beloved. In her paper, "Beyond Good and Evil: Examining Moral Collapse and Ethical Dilemmas in Beloved,” she asked what kind of morality and justice can exist in an immoral and unjust framework. “Through my research and writing process, I gained a deeper understanding of how trauma distorts ethical perception and how literature serves as a powerful tool for moral interrogation,” Fromm said.
Pelletier’s essay, “Sweep and Ideas of the Monstrous in Middle Grade Literature," dove into Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster, by Jonathan Auxier. Peletier argued that as the author explores ideas of what is truly monstrous, he also helps young readers examine their own values and clarify their sense of identity.
Renée Cramer P'28, provost and dean of the college, delivers brief remarks during the ceremony. Photo by Stephen Munchel.
Communities & chemistry
Eva Lamichhane ’28 and Bailey Bodvin ’28 were awarded this year’s .
For her Chem 141 class last fall, Lamichhane investigated how two kinds of hydrogels can be used to control incremental release of ibuprofen. Her winning lab report is titled ”Comparative Study on Ibuprofen Release in Chitosan-alginate and Polyacrylamide-alginate Hydrogels.” “Not having prior experience with writing lab reports, I found myself constantly reading other lab reports to get a sense of how to write my own. Winning this award in a way is allowing me to show my lab report to those in need of an example,” Lamichhane observed. “I feel honored and truly grateful.”
Bodvin wrote “The Memory Police and Storytelling as a Means of Remembrance,” a thoughtful response to Yoko Ogawa’s book on how connection is made through times of adversity. Bodvin appreciated the perspectives she gained into how different cultures honor the past—and the positive feedback the award has wrought. “When I submitted my papers, I really didn't think there was any chance of me actually winning; I just wanted to put myself out there and take a chance,” Bodvin said. “So I was shocked when I saw the email congratulating me for the award.”
Writing about original research
Konoka Uematsu ’26 discusses research she conducted in Cape Cod last fall and the value of sharing findings with nonscientific and scientific audiences. Photo by Stephen Munchel.
was bestowed on Konoka Uematsu ’26, for “Characterization of Lipid Biomarkers During Temperature Stress in Sargassum.” The paper outlines findings from research Uematsu conducted as an independent-study project at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Cape Cod, through the Semester in Environmental Studies program. Uematsu studied the effects of heat stress on sargassum, a seaweed, or algae, that’s crucial to the New England marine ecosystem.
In her public remarks, Uematsu acknowledged that, in an era of some division between the scientific and nonscientific communities, the chance to share work with a general audience was particularly meaningful and exciting.
“However, writing has always been inseparable from scientific work,” Uematsu pointed out, underlining the importance of clear, accessible and accurate writing in the field. “Without [effective writing], projects like this could not inherit from past knowledge or pass on knowledge to the future.”
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Published February 27, 2025