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Student Opportunities

Undergraduate Awards

Alpha Kappa Delta Honors Society

Alpha Kappa Delta was founded as an honors society for sociology majors in 1920. The goal and purpose of Alpha Kappa Delta is "to investigate humanity for the purpose of service." To qualify, a student needs to be a sociology major, have achieved junior or senior standing, and have a 3.0 GPA

2007 Alpha Kappa Delta recipients
2007 Alpha Kappa Delta Inductees

Front row (left to right): Abigayle Bickel, Khalilah Hanan. Back row (left to right): Dr. Diane Taub, Stephanie O'Shaughnessy, Julia Gorrell, Rachael Berry, Mark Colchin, Dr. Christopher Bradley.

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Arnold O. Olson Award for Excellence in Sociology

To a junior or senior with a GPA of 3.5 or above, demonstrating excellence in academic achievement in sociology. In honor of the late associate professor emeritus and chair who developed the sociology internship program.

2007 Arnold O. Olson Award Winner
Mark Colchin is the 2007 Arnold O. Olson Award winner.

Left to Right: Dr. Diane Taub, Mark Colchin, Dr. Christopher Bradley.

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The C. Wright Mills Award for Sociological Research

Award annually to a Junior or Senior sociology major who meets the following requirements:

  1. Must produce an original piece of empirical work that is based on the analysis of either primary or secondary data;
  2. Must have taken 18 or more credit hours in sociology from our program on the IPFW campus.

Students will be nominated for this award by a tenure-track faculty member in the department of sociology. The faculty member making the nomination will need to write a letter in support of the student and state why his/her original piece of empirical work merits the award. The original piece of empirical work produced by the student and the letter of nomination written by the faculty member will be forwarded to the Director of Undergraduate Studies, who will disseminate these materials to all tenure-track faculty members. The faculty will then decide whether the work is of sufficient scholarly quality to merit the award. Afterwards, a simple majority vote among the tenure-track faculty will determine which nominee will win the award. Typically only one award per academic year will be made. The award will be conferred in the spring semester.

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The Jane Addams Award for Sociological Practice

Award annually to a Junior or Senior sociology major who meets the following requirements:

  1. Must engage in a significant and meaningful applied sociological activity that is not associated with regular class work (except that it may be done as part of an independent study);
  2. Must have taken 18 or more credit hours in sociology from our program on the IPFW campus.

Students will be nominated for this award by a tenure-track faculty member in the department of sociology. The faculty member making the nomination will need to write a letter in support of the student and why his/her applied sociological activity merits the award. The letter of nomination written by the faculty member will be forwarded to the Director of Undergraduate Studies, who will disseminate the nomination letters to all tenure-track faculty members. The faculty will then decide whether the applied sociological activity is of sufficient quality to merit the award. Afterwards, a simple majority vote among the tenure-track faculty will determine which nominee will win the award. Typically only one award per academic year will be made. The award will be conferred in the spring semester.

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The Wen-Hui and Sarah Tsai Award

Awarded annually for the best student term paper on cross-cultural studies that include works on China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Singapore. Term papers written by either sociology or anthropology majors will be eligible for the award.

A $250 award will be made for the best student paper each year for students from sociology and anthropology. The paper must be either:

  1. on comparative studies from sociology or anthropology on East Asia (including China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Singapore);
  2. any sociological work that takes a functionalist approach in theory or research.

Two finalist papers will be recommended by the two departments to Wen-Hui and Sarah Tsai, as they will select the final winner.

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