We are so excited to celebrate our Winter 2025 Lunsford Award and Boothe Award winners! You can read their award-winning essays and watch recordings of their presentations through the Boothe Prize and Lunsford Award websites.
Winter 2025 Boothe Prize Winner: Peter Bennett
For "The Great American Etch-a-Sketch: How Originalist Judges Misuse History," written in Peter Tokofsky's course Who Speaks for the Past: The Rhetoric of Public Memory.
Peter is a prospective physics major from Pleasanton, CA. He is interested in sociology, constitutional law, and international policy, working to apply a scientific framework to modern policy issues. He currently works on fundamental physics research in the Gratta Lab at Stanford and serves as Director of Marketing for the Society for International Affairs at Stanford. In his free time, he enjoys biking, rock climbing, reading surrealist fiction, and making spreadsheets.
He writes, "I've been frustrated for a long time with how arbitrary policy today seems. In high school, I studied the Constitution and Supreme Court opinions for a competition called We the People, which was the source of much of my interest in politics. A common theme my team found is that the law has become much more flexible over time, even as its interpreters on the Supreme Court revert to supposedly evidence-based philosophies. This essay arose from the desire to figure out why that is, both from a political and psychological perspective.
"The PWR writing process taught me a lot about how to focus my research. My early planning broadly analyzed American exceptionalism and the ideal of the Founding Fathers in modern society. My early draft of this essay more specifically focused on how we remember the Founding Era, but I still felt that I was making vast generalizations about the US; I couldn't make a strong claim that I felt was correct. After talking to my instructor, Peter Tokofsky, I decided I should focus on the Supreme Court because I had plenty of prior knowledge to draw on and could develop strong, precise opinions as a result.
"I think learning how to focus my opinions is the most important lesson I learned from PWR, and it's one that will serve me well in the future. I'm more than happy to propose grand theories of the world, but I now know how to set up an argument that reaches a unique, useful conclusion. I'm still working on that skill—it's particularly difficult with a long argument with several threads—but it's a skill I value and intend to use in future research."
Winter 2025 Boothe Prize Honorable Mention: Rhea Rastogi
For "Fifty Shades of Methylation: Why Epigenetic Classifications Should Not Be Black and White," written in Tara Diener's course Anatomy of a Discipline: Rhetorics of Health, Illness, and Medicine.
Rhea is a Computer Science major on the pre-med track from Montgomery, Alabama. Her academic interests span bioengineering, computational biology, and philosophy. She currently serves as a leader in Stanford Students in Biodesign, Affiliated Stanford Entrepreneurial Students (ASES), and Stanford's iGEM team, where she is working on a synthetic biology-based diagnostic for liver cancer. Beyond the farm, she enjoys hunting for good food in Palo Alto, reading about existential threats and other cheerful topics, and discovering new hiking spots.
Of her experience in PWR 1, she writes, "My initial interest in my RBA topic actually predates my time at Stanford. In high school, I had the opportunity to conduct lab research that introduced me to the idea of epigenetic engineering—a way to change how genes are expressed without altering the DNA itself. When I walked into PWR 1, I originally planned to write a straightforward essay about the ethics of these tools and the need for better regulation. But Dr. Diener pushed me to look beyond the surface and examine the deeper philosophical questions at play.
"As I dove into the literature, I became increasingly frustrated by the assumptions buried in biological diagnoses, particularly around what gets labeled as “normal” versus “abnormal.” This was especially infuriating in applications of epigenetics, the study of how one’s environment can influence how their genes are expressed. The more I read, the more I realized that these supposedly “objective” methods of epigenetic classification—which can determine access to insurance and healthcare—often reflect cultural and environmental biases rather than universal biological truths. The writing process became about unpacking these hidden assumptions and questioning who gets to define biological normality in the first place.
"PWR 1 taught me that meaningful science requires examining not just the data, but the frameworks we use to interpret it. That critical perspective now shapes how I approach my other coursework and my future work in biotech."
Winter 2025 Lunsford Award Winner: Sienna Hofstetter
For "The Rez Accent,” presented in Jennifer Johnson’s course, Language, Identity and Power.
Sienna Hofstetter is a sophomore from Hemet, California studying human biology with an emphasis in health policy and human performance, actively exploring both pre-law and pre-PA interests. She is the president of the Delta Delta Delta Omega chapter and occupies her free time with weight lifting.
Sienna writes, "I came into Stanford with an intense love for public speaking, but only through PWR 2, discovered a love for exploring topics I already thought I understood. I was born and partially raised on the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon and have maintained a deep connection with my Native roots. This project was intensely personal for me, allowing me to reach out to family members to compile narratives which otherwise would never have reached a larger audience, motivating me to search for complex overarching themes by reaching out to Natives from various tribes across the country, and challenging me to reconsider every aspect of my own identity.
"After my experience, I feel deeply appreciative for the opportunity to learn about myself and my community presented to me through Dr. JJ's guidance. The way that I think about myself and my place in the world has fundamentally changed, and I can only attribute that transformation to my PWR 2 experience."
Winter Quarter Lunsford Award Winner: Aniyah Shen
For "Behind Our Masks: The Impact of Intersectional Identity on Neurodivergent Masking," presented in Lindsey Felt’s course The Rhetoric of Nonverbal Communication.
Aniyah is a pre-medical student from Irvine, CA majoring in Human Biology with a concentration in Humanistic Approaches to Psychosocial Health and Healing. As a late-diagnosed neurodivergent second-generation Chinese American woman, she is passionate about the intersection of neuroscience and women's health and hopes to pursue a research and clinical career in mental health and trauma recovery spaces. She believes in the power and necessity of storytelling and creative expression for human well-being and connection in our increasingly digital world and hopes to integrate her artistic practices in poetry and visual art with clinical practice. At Stanford, she investigates the neurocircuitry of sleep, memory, stress, and addiction with the Giardino Lab and has previously studied sex differences of spinal cord circuits involved in chronic pain perception with the Chen Lab. Outside the lab, Aniyah is Co-President of Stanford American Medical Women’s Association (SAMWA) and an Executive Director of Stanford Women in Medicine (SWIM). In her free time, she loves taking long wandering walks, spending time with family and friends, and dancing (badly) with strangers.
Regarding her PWR 2 experience, she reflects, "My PWR 2 research stemmed from a deeply personal place. I was trying to make sense of my own experiences as a woman of color within medical and diagnostic systems that don't understand or recognize intersectional presentations, and I did so by seeking out other intersectional neurodivergent voices. I was not expecting to find so many shared sentiments and experiences, let alone an overarching thematic narrative to tie all those sentiments and experiences together. This work was my first foray into qualitative research, my first time exploring disability studies, and my first time ideating and realizing a project in which I could draw directly from my own positionality. By creating an environment that was both structured enough to support thoughtful projects of this scale and personal enough to enable every student to pursue their own meaningful work in their own way, Dr Felt opened our eyes to the dazzling range of issues and possibilities within the realm of nonverbal communication. Her class and my PWR 2 work have given my personal and professional goals more direction and focus. There is still so much work to be done toward a truly inclusive, representative scientific and medical world in which all brains and bodies can exist safely and authentically. I will do my part."
Congrats to all of the winners and honorees!
