Read-on to hear from the Winter 2023 Lunsford Award and Boothe Award winners! All of these winners were honored in ceremonies in May 2023 (see here for our coverage of our return to in-person events). As of June 2023, you can read their award-winning essays and watch recordings of their presentations through the Boothe Prize and Lunsford Award websites.
Lunsford Awards
Winter 2023 Lunsford Award Winner: Lauren Reyes, “Where have our mothers gone? Remedying the Native American Infant & Maternal Health Disparity Crisis with Traditional Birthing Practices.”
For Sarah Pittock's PWR 2 course, "Hope Health & Healing: The Rhetoric of Medicine."
Yá’át’ééh Shik’éí doo shidine’é. Shí éí Lauren Rose Reyes yinishyé. Naashgalí Dine’é nishłį́, Naakaii Dine’é bashishchiin. Ákót’éego diné asdzáán nishłį́.
Hello, my friends/family. My name is Lauren Rose Reyes. I am Mescalero Apache born for Mexican Clan. In this way, I am a Navajo woman.
What I have written above is my clan introduction in Diné Bizaad (the Navajo language). I am of Mexican, Diné (Navajo), and Mescalero Apache descent and reside in Whittier, CA. My heritage, cultures, and communities are integral to my life and inform my scholarship, goals, and studies. I am currently studying Human Biology with a concentration in Biomedical and Cultural Approaches to Health and Community Health. Additionally, I am pursuing a Notation in Science Communication.
Stanford has provided me with the platform to delve into the intersections of culture and medicine. Ultimately, I want to explore how we can create place-based and community-based forms of healthcare to better serve marginalized communities. In addition, I am an avid gardener and cherish spending time at the O'Donohue Farm here on campus.
Taking PWR2: “Hope, Health, and Healing” gave me the space and support I needed to delve deeply into a topic that I am passionate about and that is largely underrepresented. It is rare to find a class in which you can write about traditional Indigenous medicine and health disparities that impact Native Americans. I am grateful for the diversity of topics and positive support from faculty within the PWR program. I will carry this work with me and expand on it as I go further into science, medicine, and community health. Heartfelt thank you to my mom, my grandma Rosa, Nicolle Gonzales, my family, and my community for supporting me and trusting me to share our stories.
Winter 2023 Lunsford Award Winner: Anna Zheng, “How to Not Forget: Remembering Tiananmen on Social Media."
For Norah Fahim's PWR 2 course, "Language Gone Viral: Investigating the Rhetoric of Social Media and Digital Communication."
I'm a TAPS major and creative writing minor from Atlanta, Georgia. In my research, I'm very interested in ideas of how narratives are impacted by place and identity. I spend most of my time outside of class doing theatre through the Asian American Theatre Project and Stanford Improvisers.
"I haven't spent much time formally considering oral presentations as a skill even though I study performance and storytelling in other mediums. I am also continuing to do research on the same topic for a creative Chappell Lougee project this summer, so it's been quite helpful to be able to approach the research from various lenses.
Boothe Prize
Winter 2023 Boothe Prize Winner: Zoya Fasihuddin, "Did My School Colonize Me?"
For Lynn Sokei's PWR 1 course, "The Rhetoric of Place, Space, and Identity"
Zoya is a prospective Public Policy major and Human Rights minor from Karachi, Pakistan. She has done a lot of work in the field of sex education and gender-based violence in Pakistan, and is passionate about using her voice to make a difference with respect to women and children’s rights. On the pre-law track, Zoya is involved in Stanford in Government and research at the Graduate School of Education and the King Center, and loves to read historical fiction and drink smoothies in her free time.
Here's Zoya on her experience in PWR 1: "My PWR class focused a lot on exploring the different facets of our identities and I wanted to write about something that connected with me, and something that was out of my comfort zone. I remember being nervous because most of my peer’s RBA questions did not directly relate to their individual experiences, but my question was literally: 'Did my school colonize me?' And if I’m being honest, I didn’t really want to find out the answer. I loved my school, and despite its colonial remnants, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience. But at the same time, writing about this topic enabled me to become cognizant of the ideas that I had internalized, including concepts regarding colorism and my own country’s history. While I struggled with admitting the answer to my question, writing about my experience, and that of alumni from my school, truly helped me come to terms with the fact that I was not alone in what I went through during my education. Even though I struggled, I’m proud of the fact that I learnt more about myself, and about the experience of students in post-colonial schools. My experience in PWR has propelled me to explore the different paradigms surrounding education across the world, and my current research at the GSE on over 10,000 education policy changes in 183 countries has allowed me to just that!"
Winter 2023 Boothe Prize Honorable Mention: Hanyi Chen, “Female Despair, Family Taboo, and Social Shackle: A Glimpse Into the Impact of Chinese Birth Control Policies on Gender Roles Perspectives Through the Stories of Three Generations of Chinese Women”
For Mutallip Anwar's PWR 1 course, "The Power of Words: Rhetoric of Social and Technological Changes.
Hanyi is from Fujian, China, and at Stanford she is majoring in Economics and Data Science. Her intellectual interests include economic development and globalization, and in her free time she loves calligraphy, dance, and netball. Here are Hanyi's reflections on her RBA and her work more broadly in Dr. Anwar's PWR 1: "I got the inspiration for my RBA from my personal background - the inherent gender injustice in Fujian, where I was born and raised. My family is closely connected with a lot of the phenomena I observed in my RBA and therefore my writing experience was easy and hard at the same time. It was easy because I could gather data and stories from people around me, and I knew their stories are already diverse enough to construct my arguments. Yet it was hard because I had to force myself to touch upon family taboos and to reflect on the injustices I suffered when growing up. However hard the writing process was, I have never regretted my choice of subject as I can now examine the cultural environment I grew up in with a more detached conscience and learn to reconcile with the younger self when she was hurt by traditions.
"Looking back, I would encourage every PWR student to seek support from tutors and peers alike. As someone who considers English as a second language, I have gradually learned during my experience in PWR1 to not be afraid to reach out and ask even seemingly stupid grammatical questions. My instructor, all the Hume tutors I went to, and my peers all gave me greater confidence in speaking and writing in English. Whenever I encounter difficulties, I knew I could always gain inspirations by talking to one or some of them."
