Announcing the 2019 Richard P. Taub Thesis Prize Winners

The Richard P. Taub Thesis Prize, created last year, is awarded annually to three undergraduate Public Policy Studies students who have done original and extensive research for the BA thesis project, the major’s capstone experience. 

The award is named after Richard P. Taub, an emeritus professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago, who was instrumental in the creation in the 1970s of the Public Policy major, now the second most popular major at UChicago.

“We’re really proud of our graduating class this year,” said Chad Broughton, Associate Director of the Undergraduate Program. “It’s among our finest classes and, at 141 students, it’s our largest yet. Eleanor, Zach, and Danielle did extraordinarily rigorous and insightful thesis research; they exemplify the quality of our 2019 graduates.”

The second annual Taub Thesis Prize winners are:

Eleanor Khirallah

Eleanor Khirallah has worked with many organizations during her time at UChicago, including Women in Public Service, Partnership for the Advancement of Refugee Rights, the Institute of Politics, and ACLU: Undergraduate Chapter. Khirallah also worked as a contributing writer for The Gate. Currently, she works as a Fellows Program Intern at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.

Thesis: “Presumed Innocent, Yet Purged from the Rolls: Navigating Public Assistance Programs upon Release from Cook Country Jail”

Zachary Lemonides

Zachary Lemonides is majoring in Political Science and Public Policy with a specialization in Law. He served as the President of the Chicago Debate Society and Crisis Director for University of Chicago Model UN, and has written pieces for publications such as The American Spectator and Chicago Journal of Foreign Policy. 

Thesis: “The Judiciary on Trial – An Empirical Analysis of the Relationship Between Donations and Judicial Outcomes: Do Campaign Contributions by Attorneys Influence Judicial Decisions?”

Danielle Schmidt

Danielle Schmidt is a Public Policy and Philosophy double major and Human Rights minor. She has worked as a Charity Management Fellow for The Giving Back Fund, a student scholar for the University of Chicago College Summer Institute, and a grant writer for Gateway to the Great Outdoors. She is also contributing writer for The Gate.

Thesis: “Offline World: An Empirical Assessment of Limited At-Home Internet Access in Quasi-Rural Illinois”

Undergraduate Public Policy Studies

Learn more about the Public Policy Studies major at UChicago.