Elon awards 15 juniors $20,000 Lumen Prize scholarships for research

Fifteen rising juniors at Elon University won the 2026 Lumen Prize, a $20,000 scholarship that will help fund two years of mentor-guided research and other high-level academic work. Among the students selected are Tajallah Amirkhil, Emma Briceño, Kelley Calvillo, Chloe Cone, Sanai Crosby, Fleur Helmantel, Anna Keller and Nevaeh Kimmie.

The prize is Elon’s premier undergraduate research honor, and this year’s winners were chosen from a highly competitive pool. The university said 30 finalists were interviewed before the final 15 were selected. Michael Carignan, who directs the Lumen Prize and teaches history, said the committee saw many strong applications and that the winners showed “truly special talent and engagement.”

The projects stretch well beyond campus. This year’s cohort includes work on public health, biochemistry, dance, English creative writing, biomedical engineering, psychology and outdoor literacy. Two of the most community-facing projects are focused on Afghan refugee women in North Carolina and on code-switching among Black college students in predominantly white academic spaces, topics that reach into questions of identity, access and belonging that resonate far beyond Elon’s campus in Alamance County.

Elon announced the winners on April 24, 2026, after photographing the class with President Connie Ledoux Book the day before. The application window for the prize opened in early March, with proposal materials due March 3 and recommendation letters due March 17. Sophomores apply in the spring term, and the award is designed to support ambitious junior- and senior-year plans, including research, international study, equipment and supplies, summer stipends and graduate-fellowship preparation.

The Lumen Prize dates to the 2007-08 academic year, after then-President Leo Lambert laid out the idea in an August 20, 2007, opening day address. Its name comes from Elon’s motto, Numen Lumen, meaning “spiritual light” and “intellectual light.”

Elon says many Lumen Scholars go on to conference presentations, publications and graduate work, and the prize often helps build the kind of portfolio that strengthens applications for national fellowships. For Alamance County, the impact is bigger than an honor roll. It is a pipeline of students whose research, performances and fieldwork can shape everything from local public health questions to broader debates about culture, education and inclusion.