GWS Student Rose Tharakan Wins Capstone Innovation Award at UIC Honors College’s Fall 2024 Honors Research Symposium
We are thrilled to announce that Rose Tharakan, an undergraduate student pursuing her GWS minor, won the Capstone Innovation Award at UIC Honors College's Fall 2024 Honors Research Symposium! Rose earned this recognition for her critical research on the impact of Illinois Department of Corrections' commissary items and costs on incarcerated people and their loved ones. Rose worked closely with GWS Director Nadine Naber and Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition & Solidarity (MAMAS) to conduct this research. As Professor Naber explained, “Rose’s thesis looked at the nutritional value within commissary items, its impact on those incarcerated, and the financial strain it puts on families. Interviewing the mothers of MAMAS (Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition and Solidarity) for her thesis, Rose used their personal stories and experiences in her research - an amazing example of tying together activism, lived experience, and academic research.” Rose's research will support MAMAS' ongoing advocacy efforts to end the violence of prisons. Congratulations, Rose, and thank you for your important work!