2025 Graduate Student Awards Roundup
Northwestern University’s Katarzyna (Kasia) Pomian Bogdanov, who just received her doctorate in learning sciences from the School of Education and Social Policy, received a 2025 Jhumki Basu Scholar Award from the National Association for Research in Science Teaching.
Part of OpenSciEd, Pomian Bogdanov studied how science teachers develop and refine their teaching approaches. She is also interested in how students and educators use silliness in the classroom to create better learning environments.
She previously studied stringed instruments and how they can help teach students about waves in more engaging ways. Pomian Bogdanov also worked at Argonne National Laboratory as part of the Dark Energy Survey to learn more about dark energy.
An educator at heart, she earned a master’s in physics and secondary education and returned to the classroom where she saw firsthand how much support educators—especially physics teachers—need. That motivated her to pursue a doctorate in learning sciences to explore how people learn and think.
“Teaching has always been at the heart of what I do,” she said in this TGS Spotlight. “Even now, as a researcher, I see myself as both a teacher and a lifelong student—always learning from my students.”
In the fall, she starts a new job as assistant professor in science education at Florida State University.
“Kasia’s work takes on interesting challenges in field of teacher learning where science teachers face dramatically changing landscape that in some ways challenge how they see their job as teachers,” said her advisor, Professor Brian Reiser, Orrington Lunt Professor of Learning Sciences at the School of Education and Social Policy.
Read more about our award-winning graduate students:
Human Development and Social Policy Doctoral Program
Lara Altman won an American Educational Research Association Student Travel Award.
Julia De Oliveira Callegari received the Itaú Social Research Travel Grant to further her research in Brazil. She also received a 2024- 2025 Northwestern Cognitive Science Advanced Research Fellowship to support her work looking at the interplay between identity, culture, and learning in children.
Jen Cowhy (PhD24), assistant professor at the University of Arkansas, received four awards from the American Educational Research Association, including Best Dissertation from the Special and Inclusive Education Research SIG, Best Graduate Student Paper from the Organizational Theory SIG, Best Dissertation from the Policy and Politics Division, and Best Paper Award from the Districts in Research and Reform SIG.
Kanika Dhanda received an International Dissertation Research Travel Grant to pursue her fieldwork in India.
Julia Honoroff (PhD25) received the Administration for Children and Families Childcare Dissertation Grant.
Rebecca Ann Lawrence received a Chapin Hall Equity First Summer Associates Program Fellowship, a summer career-building opportunity. Her research focuses on social identity development for marginalized students in higher education.
Matias Martinez (PhD25) received the George Bereday Award which recognizes the author of the most outstanding Comparative Education Review article.
Melanie Muskin won a Search Institute Summer Scholars Fellowship. The Search Institutes supports researchers who are interested in positive youth development and a career in applied research. An instructor at Vassar College, Muskin also earned the American Educational Research Association Teachers' Work/Teachers Unions Outstanding Student Paper Award for her study, Quitting with a Crowd: An Exploration of Teachers’ Resignation Stories on TikTok.
Leah Ouellet was named to the National Institute of Justice Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Prior to coming to Northwestern, she worked as a mitigation specialist for juvenile lifers at the Michigan State Appellate Defender Office, facilitated creative writing workshops at prisons in the Detroit area, and co-directed an annual poetry event exploring varying perspectives of the criminal legal system. She attended Wayne State University for her M.S. in criminal justice and the University of Michigan for a B.A. in public policy. Her research focuses on ideas about punishment and the impact of punitive policy schemes.
Andrew Stein was selected for the David L. Clark National Graduate Student Research Seminar at the American Educational Research Association annual meeting. Seminar participants are outstanding doctoral students in educational leadership, administration, and/or policy-seeking careers in research.
Karla Thomas was awarded a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.
Julia Turner was named a Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Consumer Finance Group Dissertation Fellow. She also received a Postsecondary Employment Outcomes Coalition Grant and a pilot grant from the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (Racial Equity Special Projects). Turner, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, studies how students think about education and training, including when and why students make post-secondary investments. In 2023-2024, she worked as a staff economist with The Council of Economic Advisers.
Tre Wells was selected for the Edward Alexander Bouchet Graduate Honor Society, which recognizes outstanding scholarly achievement and excellence in doctoral education. He was also accepted into the Chapin Hall Equity First Summer Associates Program.
Beiming Yang (PhD25) received the Society For Research in Child Development Asian Caucus Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award.
Felix Yu won the “Best Poster – New Results” conference award from the Society for Affective Science for his poster Emotion regulation and changes in cognitive, affective and physical well-being across adulthood.
Learning Sciences Doctoral Program
Forrest Bruce was awarded a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.
Ozivell L. Ecford received the Jim Reilly Reformer Scholarship from the city of Chicago and the Choose Chicago Foundation. He was also awarded a 2025-26 Lader-Family Scholarship Award from the Chicago Lighthouse Scholarship Committee. His study on Shakespeare and incarcerated youth, which he presented at the 2025 International Conference of Learning Sciences, was nominated for an Outstanding Student Paper award and will be published in the International Journal of Learning Sciences. That work also won best paper and presentation at the 16th Annual Graduate Student Conference at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.
Jessica Marshall, (PhD24) of the Spencer Foundation received the Division B Outstanding Dissertation Award for her work, “Teaching for Repair.” Her research was recognized for its “exceptional quality, originality, and contribution to the field.”
Ashley Quiterio was named a Spencer Foundation Quantitative, Computational and Mixed Methodologies Scholar.
Alejandra Frausto Aceves and Bradley Davey won the Sandra K. Abell Institute for Doctoral Students Scholarship which supports doctoral students involved in the study of science education. The 2025 Abell Institute (30 doctoral students and 10 faculty mentors) will be held July 21-25 on Northwestern’s Evanston campus. The event, hosted by the School of Education and Social Policy, was organized by Jason Buell, Christa Haverly, Professor Brian Reiser and Yang Zhang.
Master's in Higher Education Administration and Policy program
Brett Farmer, who is pursuing a master’s in higher education administration and policy, won a $10,000 scholarship from the NCAA as part of its 2024-25 Postgraduate Scholarship program.
Master's in Learning and Organizational Change program
Bryana Barry, who earned her Master of Science in Learning and Organizational Change, spoke of the importance of context and the “inherent trust” that comes with meeting another Wildcat during Northwestern’s 2025 commencement ceremony at the United Center. “We know we don’t just chase opportunities for a line on a résumé,” she said. “We do it for the experience. For the challenge. For the joy of learning. We show up for each other in moments of struggle and moments of triumph. That is what makes us not just successful students but strong leaders.”