Seven Schreyer Scholars and two faculty members have been selected as the recipients of the Schreyer Honors College Awards for the 2025-26 academic year, including Elise Abbott, psychology and planetary science and astronomy student, and Victoria Sadovskaya, professor of mathematics. 

“We are thrilled to celebrate the hard work and dedication of our recipients this year,” said Patrick Mather, dean of Schreyer Honors College. “They have done so much for Schreyer and Penn State, and it is an honor to recognize their excellence in academics and service with these awards.”

Elise Abbott

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Abbott received the Paul Axt Prize, which honors a graduating Scholar who exemplifies a commitment to inquiry, intellectual curiosity and daring — qualities that Paul Axt, founding director of the University Scholars Program, fostered through the honors program. First awarded in 1987, the prize was established by the University in recognition of Axt’s distinguished service.

In 2025, Abbott spent her summer in State College working on a research project to raise awareness about the negative effects of light pollution in a research group, co-led by Julia Plummer, professor of education in the Penn State College of Education, and Christopher Palma, teaching professor of astronomy and astrophysics in the Penn State Eberly College of Science. In the same year, Abbott received an Erickson Discovery Grant to pursue this research after expressing interest in using this project for her honors thesis. The Rodney A. Erickson Grant program is administered by the Office of Undergraduate Education and is designed to support undergraduate student engagement in original research, scholarship and creative work under the supervision of a research mentor. 

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Victoria Sadovskaya

Sadovskaya received the Schreyer Honors College Excellence in Honors Teaching Award, which are chosen based on student nominations. 

In 2022, Sadovskaya received the C.I. Noll Award for Excellence in Teaching by the Eberly College of Science. Instituted in 1972 and named in honor of Clarence I. Noll, dean of the college from 1965 to 1971, the award is the highest honor for undergraduate teaching in the college. Students, faculty members, and alumni nominate outstanding faculty members who best exemplify the key characteristics of a Penn State educator, and a committee selects the award winners from the group of nominees. 

Sadovskaya serves as the faculty advisor to the Penn State Math Club, which allows undergraduates to explore a variety of mathematical topics and activities in an informal atmosphere. She is also active in the Penn State Women in Math group, which includes faculty, postdocs, and students, and she served for several years on the Graduate Teaching Assistant Oversight Committee and the Undergraduate Studies Committee.

Sadovskaya was previously honored with a Donald C. Rung Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching in Mathematics in 2017 and a Teresa Cohen Service Award in 2015, both from the Department of Mathematics at Penn State.

Prior to joining Penn State in 2012, Sadovskaya was an assistant professor then associate professor at the University of South Alabama from 2003 to 2012 and a postdoctoral assistant professor at the University of Michigan. She received a doctoral degree in mathematics from Penn State in 2000 and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from St. Petersburg State University in Russia in 1995.