Our 2010 Outstanding Student in Philosophy is Joseph Yoder. Joe graduated with a philosophy major GPA of 3.81 and an overall GPA of 3.84. He also minored in Religious Studies. In 2009, Joe was awarded a two-year Sterling Scholarship.
The Sterling Scholarship Award was established to provide scholarship assistance to outstanding students majoring in departments within the School of Arts and Humanities, in this case Philosophy, to be used to provide multi-year scholarships of $300 to $1,000 annually, to outstanding sophomores whose major is within the School of Arts and Humanities. Award recipients must be enrolled full-time at BSC, continue to have a declared major in Philosophy, and maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 in their major and a minimum GPA of 2.5 overall. The Department is grateful to our award donors Professor George T. Hole, Ph.D. and three emeriti Philosophy faculty: James Grunebaum, Ph.D., John Carbonara, Ph.D., and Lanse Pollock, PhD.
The 2010 Outstanding Student in Religious Studies is Melissa Martinelli who had a GPA in the minor of 3.83. Her volunteer work was outstanding as she taught religion for four years to children at St Paul's Catholic Church in Kenmore, New York. She also received the Outstanding Student Awards from her major department, English. Melissa is now attending graduate school at Buffalo State to obtain a Masters in English.
The 2010 Victor Balowitz Prize was awarded to David Whitehead. David Whitehead is a Philosophy major with a second major in English. As a junior, David is maintaining an impressive 4.0 GPA. He has also presented an impressive number of papers at conferences around the country, including: “Ms. Good and Mr. Fairbourne: A Dialog Concerning the No Child Left Behind Program” for the 2008 BSC Department of Philosophy Spring Colloquium Series and for the 13th Annual SUNY Oneonta Undergraduate Philosophy Conference, 2008; “Tying the String Theories of Life: The Bartimaeus Trilogy and Modern Science” for the 29th Annual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, 2008, Orlando, FL; “Aristophanes, Aristotle, and Socrates: On Love (eros) and Virtue” for the 2010 Department of Philosophy Spring Colloquium Series and for The College of New Jersey/ Greater Philadelphia Philosophy Consortium Undergraduate Conference, 2010; “What Would Waggit Want?: Questing for an Ethical Philosophy in the Runelords Saga” for the 31st Annual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, 2010, Orlando, FL; and “Emotions…Remember Those?” for the Inaugural Undergraduate Conference at Rochester Institute of Technology, 2010
The Victor Balowitz Scholarship fund was established to provide scholarship assistance to outstanding students majoring in Philosophy. Victor Balowitz (1931-1996) received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Columbia in 1969. He started teaching at BSC in 1964 where he pursued his interests in Frege and Descartes. In 1994 Professor Balowitz received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Please see the memorial that ran in the American Philosophical Association Proceeding and Addresses (November 1996).
Outstanding Philosophy Major, Justin Donhauser ’06, has been extremely productive while completing the second year of his NSF research fellowship (Ecosystem Restoration through Interdisciplinary Exchange-Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (ERIE-IGERT), for which he was awarded $60K). Donhauser’s recent publications include a co-authored article with John Corcoran “Implications of implication,” abstract in Bulletin of Symbolic Logic (forthcoming); another co-authored article with Adam P. Taylor “Grey Matters: Personal Identity in the Fringe Universe(s),” in The Philosophy of J. J. Abrams, eds. Patricia Brace and Robert Arp. Kentucky Univ. Press (forthcoming); and “If Walter White is breaking bad, maybe you are too,” in ‘Breaking Bad’ and Philosophy, ed. David Koepsell, Open Court (forthcoming). His recent talks include “Are all ecosystems reducible?,” Annual ERIE-IGERT Symposium: SUNY at Buffalo (August 2010); “Constraining Too Promiscuous Realism,” Instruments: Mental and Material, 6th Annual Graduate Student Association of the Institute for the Philosophy and History of Science and Technology (HAPSAT), University of Toronto (April 2010); “Promiscuous Realism and Adaptive Ecosystems Management: on Taxonomic Pluralism and the Dimensions of Integration,” ERIE-IGERT Colloquium: SUNY at Buffalo (February 2010); “Spacetime Dimensionality and Real Presentism,” University of Waterloo Philosophy Graduate Student Association 17th Annual Graduate Conference in Philosophy (March 2010); “From Mind/Body Dualism to Mind/Body Triism,” Mind, World, and the Space in Between, 3rd Annual University of South Florida Graduate Student Conference (March 2010); “Monism All the Way Up, Moral Responsibility All the Way Down,” Spirituality, Morality and Social Justice: East and West, Society of Indian Philosophy and Religion: Kolkata, India (April 2010), paper accepted but unable to attend due to unexpected funding limitations; “Applying Metaphysics to Ecosystemic Problems,” Annual ERIE-IGERT Symposium, SUNY at Buffalo (August 2009); “Dimensional and Adimensional-presentism,” The Metaphysics of Everyday Life: Themes from the work of Lynne Rudder Baker, SUNY at Buffalo Graduate Conference, Center for Inquiry, Amherst, NY (April 2009); “My Own Worst Enemy: Locke’s Memory Criterion and the Lethal Plot Hole,” 2009 National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations Conference, New Orleans, LA (April 2009).
Darla Joyce ’09, recipient of a 2009 Victor Balowitz Prize, see Student Successes 2008 - 2009, has been accepted into the Ph.D. program in philosophy at SUNY Buffalo where she will pursue her interests in Metaphysics and Ontology. “I cannot say enough good things about the Philosophy program at Buffalo State College. The program itself is designed, not only to give one a very thorough and fundamental background in philosophy, but also to help the student advance in their studies, by giving them the opportunity to explore their personal philosophical interests. The professors and staff of the philosophy department are extremely helpful and go above and beyond to help their students achieve academic success. I couldn't have chosen a better place to begin my academic studies in philosophy.”
Philosophy major Sandee Chappell ’09 was admitted into the Master of Arts program in Psychology at Medaille College. Ms. Chappell transferred to BSC from Niagara College in Canada, and earned a 3.29 in her major, Philosophy. Since graduation she has been working at Horizon Health Services, where she works as a Vocational Counselor, which is what got her interested in studying Psychology. “I have to say that I absolutely loved my time at BSC (once I switched to Philosophy). You run a great program. All of the professors I was able to work with were truly caring and always willing to help.”
Zachary Miller ’08, a Religious Studies minor, is a student at St Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland.
Andrew Campana ’07, a Religious Studies minor, is studying business in a graduate program at Canisius College, Buffalo, New York.
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