Senior Thesis Awards

Award-Winning Papers from GHP Students

The Beth N. Rom-Rymer, Class of 1973, Senior Thesis Prize in Global Health and Health Policy is awarded in recognition of the most outstanding thesis written by a student earning a GHP certificate. 

2025 Thesis Award Winners

Josephine Klein, Catalina Posada, and Felicia Sanders

From Left: Josephine Klein, Catalina Posada, and Felicia Sanders

The Center for Health and Wellbeing proudly announces the three recipients of the 2025 Beth N. Rom-Rymer, Class of 1973, Senior Thesis Prize in Global Health and Health Policy. This prestigious honor, which includes a $2,500 cash award for each recipient, recognizes the most outstanding theses written by students earning a GHP certificate.

The 2025 awardees are:

  • Josephine Klein ’25 (History) The Making of Modern Homelessness: Mental Illness, Public Health Failures, and the Prioritization of Optics in a City Overwhelmed (New York City 1978-1989)”
  • Catalina Posada ’25 (Economics) – “The Economic Toll of Respiratory Infectious Diseases in Infants: Disruptions to Female Labor Supply and Mounting Healthcare Costs”
  • Felicia Sanders ’25 (Molecular Biology) – “Dissecting the Impact of a Maternal Helminth Infection on Offspring Antiviral Defense”

Four students received an honorable mention:

  • Adriana Alvarado ’25 (Sociology) – “Cultivating Farmworker Health: Investigating a New Era of the Medi-Cal Insurance Program among California Farmworkers”
  • Thia Bian ’25 (Comparative Literature) Ghosts and Other Fine Folk: Community, Illness, and Memory in China’s Great Famine”
  • Ayanava Ganguly ’25 (Molecular Biology) – “Methylation Signals of Early Atherosclerosis in At-Risk Youth: A Multi-Omic Analysis of the Future of Families Cardiovascular Study”
  • Seth Kahn ’25 (Public and International Affairs) – “Sanctuaries and Science: The Role of Religiosity in Shaping Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic and Implications for Policymaking”