Honors & Awards

In order to be eligible to do an Honors Thesis, students need to:

1. Be a Psychology Major
2. Have a minimum overall GPA of 3.0
3. Have a minimum GPA of 3.5 in all Psychology courses taken at Hunter College
4. Have completed PSYCH 248 and PSYCH 250

Learn more about the Honors Thesis on the Departmental Honors page.

Faculty may nominate students for honors via the Departmental Honors Nomination form.

Livingston-Welch was Hunter's first Psychology Chair and was a "Renaissance man" of sorts. The award was set up shortly after he retired.

In order to be eligible for the Livingston-Welch award, students must have both a high GPA and high grades in Psychology courses. This award is separate from the Honors in Psychology Award. A high GPA has recently been translated into a 3.7. The award is divided into research, scholarship and service. Typically, the service award goes to students who have run the Psychology Convention or published in the Department's Newsletter.

Click here to nominate your student for the Livingston-Welch Award

Membership in Psi Chi is open to students who are majoring or minoring in psychology. Qualified candidates include those of any age, sex, sexual orientation, race, handicap or disability, religion, national and ethnic origin, and who meet the minimum qualifications.

Students who wish to join PSI CHI must:

1. Be enrolled as a major or minor.
2. Have at least 3 semesters or equivalent of full-time college coursework.
3. Have at least 9 semester credit hours or equivalent of psychology courses.
4. Have a minimum 3.0 GPA average in psychology courses.

Click here to nominate your student for the PSI CHI International Honors Society

Gerald Turkewitz was one of a band of pioneers in American comparative and developmental psychology/biology who ultimately became one of the progenitors of the new field of developmental psychobiology. His experimental work, theoretical writings, and teaching were heavily influenced by his mentor, and one of the giants of comparative psychology, T.C. Schneirla. His life-long goal was to understand the developmental process and its role in emerging behavioral functions. He eschewed simple dichotomies such as the nature-nurture dichotomy and, instead, insisted that we must understand the complexity and dynamics of the developmental process to truly understand how adaptive behaviors emerge. To achieve this goal, Turkewitz and his many students and collaborators investigated a wide variety of behaviors, including rat maternal behavior and its role in the development of sensory/perceptual responsiveness in infancy and beyond. Central to all of this work was a focus on the critical role that early experience plays in the development of adaptive functioning and one of his lasting theoretical contributions is the counterintuitive notion that limitations in early sensory development are actually adaptive, rather than detrimental, from a developmental perspective.

Award:

Students can either self-nominate or a member of the faculty should forward the name and e-mail of any student whom he/she believes should be considered for the Psychology Award Commitee. Nominees should be:

1. Exceptionally talented academically, with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0.
2. Psychology majors committed to applying to a Ph.D. Program in Developmental Psychology.
3. At least an upper sophomore and at most a lower senior (completing no less than 36 and no more than 100 credits at the time of nomination).
4. Members of groups that have been historically under-represented in the sciences (e.g., first-generation college students, economically disadvantaged, or have a documented disability).

Other Information:

Click here to nominate your student for the Gerry Turkewitz Award

Corin Humphrey was a Hunter College student who was on a mission. She was a fulltime student, worked as an EMT, was a member of Hunter College's Fencing team, and was performing research in a lab at Mount Sinai Hospital, all the while obtaining a 4.0 GPA. She was on a mission to gather the knowledge needed to make a difference in the transgender community. Her goal was to improve the lives of transgender people by researching the use of hormone replacement therapy. She felt trangender people were underrepresented in science, and wanted to make her contribution in this area.

We lost Corin in October of 2020 and would like to honor her by giving a student an award in her name that also has a passion to help. We will award one student $500 upon completing a winning essay (single spaced - no more than two pages) on "How your work/research/contribution will make a different to an underrepresented community.

Please submit your document in PDF format.

The award will given at the end of every spring academic term.