KU student Levi O’Connor wins first Beinecke Scholarship for Jayhawks

Levi O’Connor turned a freshman research start into a national breakthrough for the University of Kansas. The psychology senior from Louisburg became the first Jayhawk to win the Beinecke Scholarship Program, a fellowship that will give him $5,000 before graduate school and $30,000 for study in the 2026-2027 academic year.

The Beinecke award is aimed at students pursuing research-focused master’s or doctoral study in the arts, humanities or social sciences. Each year, only 20 undergraduates nationwide are selected, and only 135 colleges and universities are invited to nominate one student. KU said it was one of a select number of participating institutions as of the 2018-2019 academic year, and it is the only participating school in Kansas, which makes O’Connor’s win a milestone not just for Lawrence but for students across the state.

O’Connor’s path began in KU’s Emerging Scholars Program, where he started research as a freshman. He went on to work with Glenn Adams, a KU professor of psychology and director of the Cultural Psychology Research Group, and Syed Muhammad Omar, a KU doctoral candidate whose interests include decolonial psychology, perceptions of racism, identity, cultural psychology and environmentalism. That long runway of mentored work helped set up the nomination and shows why the scholarship is about more than grades alone: it rewards sustained scholarly commitment.

For KU, the first Beinecke Scholar gives the university a new marker in the national fellowship landscape. The Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships coordinates the nomination process, and KU said the next application cycle will begin in late fall 2026. The timing matters for future Jayhawks who are already building research portfolios, because the award now gives them a clear example of how undergraduate work in Lawrence can lead to a prestigious graduate-school launchpad.

The Beinecke Scholarship Program itself dates to 1971, when the Board of Directors of The Sperry and Hutchinson Company established it to honor Edwin, Frederick and Walter Beinecke. Since 1975, the program has selected more than 759 students from more than 120 undergraduate institutions. KU also pointed to the strength of its research pipeline this spring, when 57 students received Undergraduate Research Awards worth $1,000 each, underscoring how early mentoring can feed into larger national honors.