At New Awards Ceremony, IPN Students Celebrate Contributions to Community and Education

Doctoral students in the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience (IPN) spend years together in classes, lab rotations and thesis research. This year, student leaders came up with a new way to celebrate their academic community, introducing an annual awards program to recognize “peers and faculty who embody the values of the IPN, Georgetown, and the Jesuit tradition.”

Students submitted nominations for the new IPN Student Awards, voted on nominees in three categories, and gathered in the Medical and Dental Building on October 17 to recognize the winners:

Matthew Nelson (G’26) received the Spirit of the IPN Award, for “uplift[ing] the IPN community from within, demonstrating exceptional peer mentorship, collaboration, and/or internal leadership.”

Zachary Colon (G’26) received the IPN Student Person for Others Award for “leadership and service extend[ing] beyond IPN … spearheading and advancing the common good at Georgetown University more broadly and/or in other communities through interdisciplinary action and volunteerism.”

Rebekah Evans, assistant professor of neuroscience, received the IPN Faculty Magis Award, in recognition of “a deep commitment to student growth … sincere interest and meaningful engagement in student growth, through both formal and informal support.”

IPN awards committee chair Mia Coutinho (G’26) said the new awards came from a discussion with former IPN student government president Anna Pearson (G’27).

“We discussed how many people in this program, students and faculty alike, give so much of their time and energy to make this program productive, and welcoming and strong, and yet there existed very few ways to recognize them for these efforts,” Coutinho said. “We discussed how perhaps introducing a way to annually reflect on our Georgetown and IPN values, and recognize those who are doing an exceptional job moving with those values could not only show our collective appreciation, but even encourage future IPN members to model these values, as well.”