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Department Celebrates Sociology Graduates and Awards at End-of-Year Banquet

The department held its yearly celebration and banquet to recognize our outstanding graduating seniors, present our annual awards, and welcome new members into our AKD National Honor Society. We were honored to have Sociologist Dr. Jonathan Gomez, an Associate Professor and Chair of Chicana and Chicano Studies from San José State University, deliver a special keynote address at the event.

At the banquet we celebrated all of our graduates for their achievements and contributions and presented our annual awards and inducted our newest cohort of AKD Honor Society awardees.

Krassowski Sociology Paper Award
In honor of Dr. Witold Krassowski, the founder of the Sociology Department at SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½, this prize is awarded for an exemplary senior research paper.

• 1st Prize: Mia Flores for the paper, “The Efficacy of Institutional Support Structures For Live-In Student Staff: Training and Post-Crisis Recovery For Community Facilitators at SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½”. Mia’s original survey-based research investigated training and support for SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Community Facilitators and led to recommendations shared with the Office of Residential Life. M
• 2nd Prize: Annie Yaeger for the paper, “Understanding Mandated Reporting on College Campuses: An Examination of Online Resources”. Annie’s original research studied universities across the country regarding resources for mandated reporting of discriminatory behavior and sexual assault, and her findings were shared with the SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Director of the Title IX Office.
• Honorable Mention: Eliana Schaer for the paper, “From Calling to Content: The Crisis of Modern Leisure”. Eliana’s senior honors thesis investigated how leisure activities have become side hustles and performative activities in an era of platform capitalism.

Community-Based Work in Sociology Award
This award is presented to a graduating senior for excellence in applying sociological knowledge and action while a student at SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ and positively impacting the community.

• First Prize: Siya Aggarwal. Siya worked on Naloxone initiatives on campus, leads Burnout Broncos (a peer recovery and wellness group), and works off-campus at the Recovery Café San Jose and SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ County’s Community Health Outreach Worker program. Her Sociology capstone paper was a comparative analysis of recovery resources for students across California universities.
• Second Prize: Zara Farber. Zara applied her sociological knowledge to her work with the Palo Alto VA Health Care System and SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s tUrn Environmental Activism. She is also a Peer Success Coach for the Broncos Connection Program and President of the Psychology Club.
• Honorable Mention: Kaitlyn Robles. Kaitlyn, a Health Education Associate with the SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ County Department of Public Health, uses her bilingual skills in Spanish and English to serve families, and has worked as a research assistant in the Identity, Diversity, and Educational Equity Research Lab at SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½.

Creative Expression in Sociology Award
This award recognizes creative or innovative student work in Sociology other than traditional research papers.

• First Prize Winner: Gwyneth Choi for her poem titled, “Between Counts’”, which uses a metaphor about dancing to engage ideas about Foucault, discipline, gender, and surveillance.
• Second Prize: Jazmin Rivera for her poem titled, “The Silenced Shelf”, which explores the sociology of book bans, focusing on censorship, exclusion, and institutional power.

Sociology Academic Excellence Award
This award is given to the seniors with the highest GPA in the Sociology major. This year, there was a five-way tie with all recipients earning a perfect 4.0 GPA in the major. Congratulations to:

• Gwyneth Choi
• Jazmin Rivera
• Kaitlyn Robles
• Eliana Schaer
• Annie Yaeger

Alpha Kappa Delta (AKD) International Sociology Honor Society
To honor their excellent academic performance and dedication to sociology, the department welcomed new lifetime members into the Alpha Kappa Delta (AKD) International Sociology Honor Society. We extend a warm welcome to our new initiates for 2026:

Aliyah Hernandez Cardenas; Celia Scharmer; Ella White; Emerson Munn; Eva Hernandez; Gia Lopez; Gwyneth Choi; Leonardo Perez; Maria Tobar; Poiema Dai; Robert Aivazian; Ruixuan Mandy Yang; Ryen Hampton; Sade Hashemi; Siya Aggarwal; Victoria Contreras Salinas; Zara Farber