UT Co-Op George H. Mitchell Award

Student Awards for Academic Excellence

In Spring 2025 the University of Texas at Austin, with the generous support of the University Co-op, will recognize undergraduate students for superior scholarly or creative achievement. Four recipients will receive awards of $5,000 each and two will receive the top prize of $7,000.

The Mitchell Awards Selection Committee consists of university faculty members who choose the recipients.

News:

Deadline:
March 26, 2025


Eligibility

Applicants must be either a junior or senior currently enrolled at UT or have received their undergraduate degree in December 2024. Submitted work should be finished or close to finished (e.g. a complete draft of a thesis or research paper). Previous Mitchell Awards recipients are eligible only if the submitted work is a completely different project. Both the student application with all its supporting materials and the faculty recommendation form must be received by the deadline for the application to be considered.

The following materials must be uploaded via Interfolio:

  1. The student project (paper, thesis, publication, video, artwork, etc.) in a single digital file. If the project is a video, provide a YouTube or Vimeo link in a Word or PDF document briefly describing your project and referencing your link.
  2. Mitchell Video Prompt
  3. A one to two page CV or resume highlighting activities and achievements during your years of study at UT.
  4. A scanned copy of your academic summary available through the Texas One Stop at no cost.
  5. The UT Co-op George H. Mitchell Student Statement is to be completed in Interfolio.
  6. The faculty recommendation form. Please do not request a recommendation letter via Interfolio.
  7. The Official UT Austin Applicant Screening Questions and UT Austin Applicant Source forms will be completed in Interfolio. Although these forms are primarily used for university-wide faculty recruitment, they must be completed to finalize your application.

All of the above materials must be uploaded and your application submitted no later than March 26, 2025 11:59 p.m. CST. 


Frequently Asked Questions:

May I submit more than one project? 

Students may submit only one project per year of applying for the Co-op/Mitchell award.

May I co-submit a project with another student?

Yes, co-submissions are accepted. Only one student should submit the application on behalf of the team. Only one letter of recommendation should be submitted for the team. 

May I submit a project that involves research/activities not completed at UT?

Yes, as long as the work was completed while you were a UT student. A letter of recommendation from a UT faculty member is still required.

May I submit more than one letter of recommendation?

No, only one letter of recommendation should be submitted per application. In the event that more than one faculty member supervised your work, they may co-write a letter of recommendation.

2025 UT Co-op George H. Mitchell Award Recipients

Gabriella Roque Olveira Nomura
Award: $7,000
Major: Biomedical Engineering Honors
Category: Grand Prize, STEM
Winning Project: TriSwinUNETR Lobe Segmentation Model for Computing DIR-free CT-ventilation

Paxton Smith
Award: $7,000
Major: Advertising
Category: Grand Prize, Humanities
Winning Project: A War on My Body; A War on My Rights

Xingrui Long
Award: $5,000
Major: English Honors
Category: Humanities
Winning Project: The Cybernetic Body: Modeling the Hermeneutic-Cybersocial in Neuromancer’s Recursive Governance

Anika Bhatia
Award: $5,000
Major: Psychology
Category: Social Sciences
Winning Project: The Relationship of Cognitive Intraindividual variability to Psychiatric Symptoms in Older Adults With and Without Objective Cognitive Impairment and Subjective Cognitive Complaints

Cecily Gibson
Award: $5,000
Major: Plan II and Chemistry
Category: STEM
Winning Project: The Relationship of Cognitive Intraindividual variability to Psychiatric Symptoms in Older Adults With and Without Objective Cognitive Impairment and Subjective Cognitive Complaints

Demian Chavez Galvan
Award: $5,000
Category: Artistic/Creative
Major: Theatre and Dance
Winning Project: Drama as a Methodology for Nahuatl  Language Revitalization

2025 George H. Mitchell Award – Special Recognition

Chase Patterson
Award: $1,500
Major: Plan II and English
Category: Artistic/Creative
Project: Eternal Travelers: The Renga of Rangerworld

Rhea Lazar
Award: $1,500
Major: Molecular Biology
Category: Humanities
Project: Evaluating a Community-Centered Digital Health Navigation Tool: The Health Maze Program

Caroline Whitmarsh
Award: $1,500
Major: Plan II and Psychology
Category: Social Sciences
Project: Examining the Domain-General, Teacher-Rated, and Reading-Specific Working Memory

Akshara Ramaswamy
Award: $1,500
Major: Psychology
Category: STEM
Project: Acute and post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection: a review of risk factors and social determinants

2025 George H. Mitchell Semi-Finalists

Leah C. Austin, Artistic/Creative
Aveen Ghodsi Jafari, Social Sciences
Lauren Allyn Rader, Social Sciences
Rachel Schmidt, STEM
Emma Vorndran, Humanities
Grant Gilker, Artistic Creative

Year Award Name Category
2024 $7,000 Josíah Garza Grand Prize, Artistic/Creative
2024 $7,000 Anirudh Sudarshan Grand Prize, Social Sciences
2024 $5,000 Melanie Quintero, Tuan Nguyen, Ana Metelski, Elizabeth Kinerk, Katherine Le Artistic/Creative
2024 $5,000 Arianne Ohman Humanities
2024 $5,000 Nikita Kakkad Social Science
2024 $5,000 Lars Deutz STEM
2024 $1,625 Jersey Robinson Artistic/Creative
2024 $1,625 Bradon Foskett Humanities
2024 $1,625 Michell Magnus Ducloux Social Sciences
2024 $1,625 Nirmal Patel STEM
2023 $7,000 Stephane Hatgis-Kessel STEM
2023 $7,000 Amtul-noor Rana Social Science
2023 $5,000 Benjamin Cervantes Artistic/Creative
2023 $5,000 Katherine Faulkner STEM
2023 $5,000 Sophia Kontos Humanities
2023 $5,000 Emma Gueorguieva Social Science
2023 $1,625 Thomas Jennings Artistic/Creative
2023 $1,625 Neel Nagarajan STEM
2023 $1,625 Amanda Figueroa-Nieves Humanities
2023 $1,625 Sarah Syamken Social Sciences
2022 $7,000

Aniket Sanghi

>STEM
2022 $7,000

Alexandria Passanisi

Artistic/Creative
2022 $6,000

Vivek Ramanathan

STEM
2022 $5,000

John Prado

Humanities
2022 $5,000

Amelia Mercado

Social Sciences
2022 $5,000

Alex Cao and Caleb Zhang

Artistic/Creative
2022 $1,625

Matthew Santoso

STEM
2022 $1,625

Megan Snopik

Humanities
2022 $1,625

Jackie Yang

Social Sciences
2022 $1,625

Macaella Gray and Zoe Roden

Artistic/Creative
2021 $3,000

Jeremian Abdullah

Artistic/Creative
2021 $3,000

Leonardo Di Bonaventura Altuve

Social Sciences
2021 $3,000

Joseph Guidry

STEM
2021 $3,000

Mark Simmons

Humanities
2020 $3,500 Ethan Russo Humanities
2020 $2,500 Austin Ali Artistic/Creative
2020 $2,500 Zoe de Beurs STEM
2020 $2,500 Maike Morrison STEM
2020 $2,500 Ishaana Talesara Social Sciences
2019 $12,000 Ariel Rebekah Barr STEM
2019 $5,000 Logan Pearce STEM
2019 $5,000 Scott Spivey Social Sciences
2019 $2,500 Aliyah Conley Humanities
2019 $2,500 Griffin Glenn STEM
2018 $12,000 Zahra Ahmed STEM
2018 $5,000 James Ding Social Sciences
2018 $5,000 Oluwaseun Olayiwola Artistic/Creative
2018 $2,500 Ashlie Martinez STEM
2018 $2,500 John Lin STEM
2017 $12,000 Luis Cataldo Humanities
2017 $5,000 Nathan Rebello STEM
2017 $5,000 Benjamin Stevenson Artistic/Creative
2017 $2,500 Gabrielle McRoberts Social Sciences
2017 $2,500 Bronwyn Scott STEM
2016 $10,000 Nell McKeown Humanities
2016 $3,000 Lillian Leone Social Sciences
2016 $3,000 Shelby Walford Sciences or Technology
2016 $3,000 Aydin Zahedivash Sciences or Technology
2016 $2,000 Mohnish Gandhi Social Sciences
2016 $2,000 Jaclyn Kachelmeyer Social Sciences
2016 $2,000 Macey Shay Humanities
2015 $10,000 Victoria Arnold Sciences or Technology
2015 $3,000 Ciaran Dean-Jones Humanities
2015 $3,000 Noor Momin Sciences or Technology
2015 $3,000 Thales Smith Artistic/Creative Project or Performance
2015 $2,000 Kaitlyn Kennedy Humanities
2015 $2,000 Nikita Klimovich Sciences or Technology
2015 $2,000 Nalin Ratnayeke Sciences or Technology
2014 $10,000 Lucy Kerr Humanities
2014 $3,000 Lindsay Mulford Social Sciences
2014 $3,000 Patrick Naeve Humanities
2014 $2,000 Lucy Junker Humanities
2014 $2,000 Casey Nice Humanities
2013 $12,500 Victor Vu Science and Technology
2013 $12,500 Katherine Noble Artistic and Creative
2013 $5,000 Isaac Gomez Artistic and Creative
2013 $5,000 Andrew Wortham Social Sciences
2013 $2,000 Ashty Karim Science and Technology
2013 $2,000 Leon Dean Science and Technology
2013 $2,000 Hannah Waitt Humanities

Application Support

The University of Texas at Austin is using an Interfolio product to collect award applications. Applicants to this position receive a Dossier account and can send all application materials, including confidential letters of recommendation, free of charge.


For help signing up, accessing your account, or submitting your application please check out Interfolio’s help and support section or get in touch via email at help@interfolio.com or phone at (877) 997-8807.