Honors Inter/Disciplinary Awards: 2024-2025
At the close of each academic year, Honors faculty discuss the academic accomplishments of our students and select one individual within each of our primary areas of study for special recognition. All awardees are nominated by multiple faculty members who they have taken Honors classes with for distinguishing themselves through the excellence of their work, either within their declared pre-major, through completion of a concentration, or through completing multiple Honors classes related to the fields of study that they were nominated for awards in.
Honors Student of the Year, and Honors STEM Awards:
David was selected as a recipient of the Honors Scholarship out of high school based on his strong academic record and a strong interview. He completed twenty-three credits in Honors classes, including an Honors Independent Study course. Honors faculty described David as “one of the smartest students I have had”. Multiple faculty members highlighted that David is a student who “goes above and beyond,” who reads materials beyond the assigned texts simply because they are relevant and interesting, and who “completes classes with flying colors”. Other Honors faculty stated that David is “an outstanding student, the kind of student Oakton can be proud of”, who “has excelled in all three classes I've taught him in… he is able to learn this challenging material on his own without any assistance from me.” Honors faculty described David as more than just a student, but “gifted as a teacher, someone who can explain things well”. All of David’s Honors faculty mentors described David as someone with a good heart who is easy to get along with and work with.
Honors Coursework: MAT200 Honors Independent Study: Number Theory; EGL101 Honors Composition I; EGL102 Honor Composition II; MAT250 Honors Calculus I; MAT252 Honors Calculus III; PHY221 General Physics I.
Honors Public Intellectual, and Honor English Awards: Ana Adamadze
Ana was selected as a recipient of the Honors Scholarship out of high school based on her strong academic record and a strong interview. She completed twenty-four credits in Honors classes, including one Learning Community, all in one year. She received the Honors Scholarship on coming to Oakton and, while at Oakton, she was selected to receive the Graff-Stacewicz Honors Public Intellectuals Scholarship based on her participation in the intellectual life of the campus, including sole leadership of an hour-long session open to the campus community titled “Overcoming Identity Dislocation: My Journey as a Georgian Immigrant” during International Education Week in Fall 2024 (this was the first time that a student had led a session at IEW). Honors Faculty pointed to the many projects that Ana has submitted for publication and competition, such as the EU Prize for Journalism, and described Ana as “exhibiting a high level of political awareness and activism, especially surrounding minority and migrant issues and political conversations about her country, Georgia” and that she is “also not afraid to take on extra work… and to think outside the box to achieve her intended goals”.
Honors Coursework: EGL101 Honors Composition I; PSC101 Honors American Government; PSC103 Honors Introduction to Political Science; SOC103 Honors Social Problems; EGL102 Honors Composition II; EGL129 Honors Introduction to Literature; HUM124 Honors African-American Culture and the Arts; SPE103 Honors Effective Speech; PHL105 Honors Logic.
Honors Environmental Studies Award: Fatima Elgarawany
Fatima completed nineteen credits in Honors classes, including one Learning Community. Honors faculty highlighted that Fatima has worked hard during her time at Oakton, completing both the Honors Scholar Designation and the Environmental Studies Concentration, while serving as a Lab Assistant for the Environmental Science Concentration. Honors faculty stated that Fatima’s passion for conservation and outreach was evident through her research on the invasive rusty crayfish and their spread in the region, which she actively shared at the college-wide open house. Fatima also demonstrated unwavering dedication while caging native plants on campus to protect them from the overpopulated white-tailed deer, braving the cold, wet, and windy spring months without complaint. Honors faculty described Fatima as “consistently dependable—always arriving to class on time, fully engaged, and eager to support her peers… [that she is a person who] forms connections wherever she goes, and there's no doubt she will continue to do so as she pursues Environmental Studies at Lake Forest University in Fall 2025”.
Honors Coursework: EGL135 Honors Introduction to Native American Literature; PHL204 Honors Environmental Ethics; MAT131 Honors Elementary Statistics; BIO109 Honors: Plants and Society; PHL106 Honors: Ethics.
Honors Philosophy Award: Hannah Cardenas Avila
Hannah completed 18 credits in Honors classes, including an Honors Independent Study. Honors faculty described Hannah as a student who “combines a sharp analytical mind with a deep sensitivity to social issues and social justics” who has done great work across multiple classes. Other Honors faculty described Hannah as “a serious, thoughtful, and extremely bright student who is also very nice to talk to and work with and is very thorough about the research process, both in looking at textual sources and using field research methods that were new to her, and incorporating strong research into her work.” Honors faculty further described Hannah as a student who is very responsive to feedback and “puts in the hard work of creating great writing and projects, to the extent that they are of publishable quality”. Two of Hannah’s projects—ethnographic profiles of Jewish communities in the Greater Chicago area—were published on chicagoreligions.com. Honors faculty commented that they “always enjoyed regular meetings [with Hannah] and the conversations [they] had about the projects she completed in my classes and subjects beyond”. Hannah was selected to receive the Oakton/Elmhurst full-tuition transfer scholarship and is transferring to Elmhurst University’s Honors Program.
Honors Coursework: PHL200 Honors Independent Study: Methods in the Academic Study of Religion; MAT131 Honors Elementary Statistics; PHL110 Honors Introduction to the Study of Religion; PHL160 Honors Social and Political Philosophy; SOC103 Honors Social Problems; PHL290 Honors Topics in Philosophy: Capitalism and its Discontents.
Honors Humanities Award: Noah Rosenberg
Noah completed nine credits in Honors classes in his first year at Oakton including a Learning Community. Honors faculty described Noah as having a “passion for education [that] has been very apparent in classroom discussions”, and that he “has not only shared his insightful thoughts with the class, he seeks to learn from his colleagues and engage their perspectives as well.” Other Honors Faculty commented that “Noah is a dedicated, intelligent, and loving student and human. He has such a contemplative, gentle, nuanced writing style and lens on the world. His justice-centered voice and heart shine through on each piece of writing and in each class discussion. In all of his work and conversations, I see his hopefulness and peace-laden approach to justice and building community. Noah is the kind of light we need in a world dark with conflict and injustice and it is young people like him who give me hope for the future.” Multiple Honors faculty commented on Noah’s writing style, which they said “mirrors his inquisitive, reflective, and truth-seeking mind”. Honors faculty shared that “Noah’s questioning nature speaks volumes about his being a current and future scholar.”
Honors Coursework: HUM122 Contemporary Culture and the Arts; EGL129 Intro to Literature; HUM124 African American Culture and the Arts.
Honors Social and Behavioral Sciences Award: Brandon Khamharn
Brandon completed eighteen credits in Honors classes including one Learning Community. He served as the Treasurer of the Honors Student Organization.
Honors Coursework: EGL131 Honors Multicultural Literature of the United States; PHL106 Honors Ethics; PHL205 Honors World Religions; SOC101 Honors Introduction to Sociology; HUM122 Honors Contemporary Culture and the Arts; SOC103 Honors Social Problems.
Honors Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Award: Nat Cisneros
Nat completed six credits in Honors classes.
Honors Coursework: HUM140 Honors Intro to Women’s and Gender Studies; SOC101 Intro to Sociology.
Honors Peace and Social Justice Studies Award: Kate Capilitan
Completed nineteen credits in Honors classes including one1 Learning Community. Honors faculty described Kate as a “bright, friendly, responsible, and reflective” and as a “thoughtful, creative, and outspoken student”. Faculty commented that Kate’s contributions to class discussions “often inform her classmates of social and economic histories and dependencies that they were previously unaware of” and that she “often used her global and internationalist perspective to make cogent criticisms of mainstream feminism, which often overlooks the positions of ‘other’ women in the Global South.” Kate’s passion for social justice and cooperation across difference comes through clearly in the classroom.
Honors Coursework: EGL102 Honors Composition II; HUM140 Honors Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies; MAT131 Honors Elementary Statistics; PHL160 Honors Social and Political Philosophy; BIO109 Honors Plants and Society; PHL106 Honors Ethics; EGL102 Honors Composition II.