2026 Bonnie W. Oldham Library Research Prize Winners

George Aulisio, Ph.D., dean of the Weinberg Memorial Library, is pleased to announce the winners of the 2026 Bonnie W. Oldham Library Research Prize competition.

This year's winning projects in the three prize categories are:

Undergraduate Foundational Winner: Lucas Camacho, for the project, Building Habits that Last a Lifetime, completed in WRTG 107: Composition taught by Prof. Dawn D'Aries Zera, adjunct faculty member, English and theatre.

Undergraduate Upper-level Winner: Hannah Horn, for the project, Money Laundering through Online Gambling, completed in CJ 231: Environmental Criminology taught by Ismail Onat, Ph.D., associate professor; criminal justice, cybersecurity and sociology.

Graduate Winner: Aaron T. Redis, for the project, Seeing Trauma Differently: Evaluating the Efficacy of EMDR Across Varying Abilities and Contexts, completed in COUN 521: Physical and Psychosocial Aspects of Disability taught by Samantha Herrick, Ph.D., associate professor, counseling and human services.

Currently celebrating its 16th year, the Weinberg Memorial Library inaugurated the prize in 2011 to recognize excellence in research projects that show evidence of significant knowledge of the methods of research and the information gathering process and use of library resources, tools and services. In 2017, the prize was named for Professor Emerita Bonnie W. Oldham, who founded the prize at the University in 2011.

The Bonnie W. Oldham Library Research Prize was fully endowed in 2019 and consists of a prize of $500 awarded to winning projects in each of the three categories: Undergraduate Foundational (100-level projects), Undergraduate Upper-level (200- to 400-level projects) and Graduate. Winning projects and descriptions of the research process submitted by the student winners will be deposited into the Bonnie W. Oldham Library Research Prize Collection this summer.

The following projects were selected by the judges as Honorable Mentions:

Undergraduate Foundational Honorable Mention: Emma McMahon, for the project, Prioritizing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Over Pharmacotherapy, completed in WRTG 107: Composition taught by Prof. D'Aries Zera.

Undergraduate Foundational Honorable Mention: Abigail Wall, for the project, Does Telehealth Improve Access to Healthcare or Compromise the Quality of it?, completed in WRTG 107: Composition taught by Prof. D'Aries Zera.

Undergraduate Upper-level Honorable Mention: Corinne R. Langowski, for the project, Predicting Developmental Outcomes in Toddlers with Early Language Delay Using the Preschool Language Scale - Fifth Edition, completed in CSD 412: Introduction to Research Methods taught by Joseph Motzko, Au.D., adjunct faculty member, health and human performance.

Undergraduate Upper-level Honorable Mention: Faith E. Montagnino, for the project, The Wound as Method: Pain, Language, and Feminist Knowledge in Confessional and Post-Confessional Poetry, completed in WRTG 489H: Honors Project II mentored by Billie Tadros, Ph.D., associate professor of English and theatre.

Prize winners were honored at an awards ceremony on Friday, May 22, in the Charles Kratz Scranton Heritage Room of the Weinberg Memorial Library.

A special thank you to the judges of this year's competition: Kate Cummings, Colleen Farry, Corinne Flynn, Margaret Lakomy, Michael Landram, Bonnie Markowski, Bill Miller, Linda Mlodzienski, Ian O'Hara, Ashley Stampone, Ben Willis and Xinyu Zhou.