Christopher Koch, PhD, chair of the Psi Chi/J. P. Guilford Undergraduate Research Awards Committee, has announced the winners of the 2002–2003 Guilford Award competition. The first-place winner is B. Michelle Peruche of Florida State University for her paper entitled "The Implications of Racial Stereotypes on Police Officer Decisions to Shoot." The second-place winner is Geoffrey A. Lee of the University of Florida for his paper entitled "Are You Ready? A Controlled Study of a Graduate Preparation Program on Undergraduate Psychology Majors." The third-place winner is Jennifer A. Seegers of Liberty University (VA) for her paper entitled "The Prevalence of Sexual Addiction Symptoms on the College Campus."

B. Michelle Peruche, the first-place winner, is originally from Miami, Florida, and currently resides in Crystal River, Florida. Ms. Peruche graduated from Florida State University with honors in August 2002 with a BS in psychology and criminology. As an undergraduate, she assisted with research regarding mental representations in the course of language comprehension, issues related to forensic psychology, and stereotype activation.
     Over the past year, Ms. Peruche has continued with research from the honors thesis, investigating whether the race of a criminal suspect influences people’s decisions about whether to shoot and whether training on a computer simulation task can decrease instances of biased responses. During the next year, Ms. Peruche will continue with this work. Ms. Peruche plans to attend graduate school beginning in fall 2004. Her current research interests lie in the area of stereotypes and prejudice reduction, particularly the automatic activation of prejudice responses and how these processes can be interrupted and controlled.

The second-place winner, Geoffrey A. Lee, graduated with highest honors from the University of Florida in Gainesville in May 2003 with a BS in psychology. Mr. Lee is currently interested in preparing undergraduates for graduate school in psychology as well as multicultural and relationship issues. Mr. Lee is a member of Golden Key National Honor Society, Iota Eta Pi National Honor Society, and Psi Chi National Psychology Honor Society. Mr. Lee’s plans include pursuing a PhD in counseling psychology at the University of Florida with a minor in assessment. He hopes to continue with his strong interest in research and teaching in the university setting, in addition to working at a university counseling center.

Jennifer A. Seegers, the third-place winner, is originally from Long Island, New York, but grew up in Port Charlotte, Florida. Ms. Seegers left Port Charlotte for Atlanta, Georgia, where she resided for two years before moving to Lynchburg, Virginia, to pursue her undergraduate degree in psychology at Liberty University. In May 2003, Ms. Seegers graduated summa cum laude with honors with a BS in psychology. Awarded Psychology Student of the Year for the 2002–03 school year. Ms. Seegers is a member of Psi Chi National Honor Society and is a student member of the following organizations: American Psychological Association, Virginia Psychological Association, Virginia Academy of Clinical Psychologists, American Association of Christian Counselors, and National Council on Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity.
     Ms. Seegers presented her research on sexual addiction at the spring 2003 Virginia Psychological Association Conference. Beginning in fall 2003, Seegers will be a first-year graduate student at Lynchburg College (VA) where she will be pursuing her master’s degree in counseling and continuing her research in the area of addictions. Ms. Seegers’ main areas of interest in psychology are addictions and adolescents.