History Student Wins 2026 Breidenstine Award

Bryanna Nase '26 was awarded the 2026 Breidenstine Award for her University Honors College thesis, "A History of LGBTQ+ Student Groups on Millersville's Campus from 1970 to the Present." The award is given to students whose work is deemed most outstanding by the Honors and Awards Committee, and was developed in recognition of Dr. A.G. Breidenstine and his service as academic dean of Millersville University from 1955 to 1965.

A history major, Nase began her thesis in late 2024 while serving as a research assistant for the Millersville University Archives & Special Collections: Millersville Institutional Legacy Initiative. She chose to investigate LGBTQ+ student clubs on campus, spanning from the 1970s to now, to reveal MU's Queer history.

Research was first conducted via Millersville University's Archives and Special Collections, where Nase says she "spent that fall poring over copies of The Two Cent Plain Dealer, an underground New Left newspaper that operated from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, and old issues of The Snapper in search of advertisements and letters to the editor discussing LGBTQ+ student groups on campus." A digital timeline of those findings is now housed on the Archives website.

Nase continued research in 2025 by conducting oral histories with faculty and alumni mentioned in Millersville newspapers. Her motivation for this was twofold: to establish more sources for the thesis and to preserve Millersville's Queer history.

"Outside of advertisements and letters to the editor in the school papers," Nase explains, "Millersville's Archives and Special Collections had very few items documenting this history." She found only a constitution for Veritas, the club for gay, lesbian and bisexual students in the 1980s, as well as a few flyers from MU Allies, the 1990s predecessor to the Gender and Sexuality Alliance.

For Nase, it is important that current Queer students can see themselves in Millersville's archival holdings and institutional history: "They are not the first, and certainly will not be the last, to fight for LGBTQ+ rights and visibility on our campus."

Nase found the writing process difficult but rewarding. Throughout the project, she relied on the guidance and expertise of her academic support team, including assistant professor and university archivist/special collections librarian Frank Vitale, archives and special collections technician Ashley Sherman and associate professor of history, Dr. Erin Shelor.

"Frank has supported this project since it was a seed of an idea," says Nase. "He guided me and encouraged my research through the MILI internship and repeatedly challenged me to take this project to the next level. Both Frank and Ash equipped me with the proper paperwork, technology and sensitivity needed to converse with faculty and alumni about this history. Dr. Erin Shelor reassured and encouraged me when the prospect of writing felt overwhelming, frequently helping throughout the research, writing and editing processes. I could not have asked for a better academic support system throughout this process and my undergraduate career."

Nase is "honored to have received the Breidenstine Award," emphasizing her gratitude and aspirations for the project's legacy. "It is an understatement to say that this is the proudest accomplishment of my undergraduate career," she says. "I am grateful for the opportunities and support Millersville gave me to pursue this project, and for the institutional recognition of this history. I hope my project emboldens and inspires Millersville's Queer students - past, present, and future."

Since graduating this past May, Nase aims to pursue a master's degree in library and information science, concentrating on archival studies. Her experiences in Millersville's Archives and Special Collections cultivated a passion for preservation. In the future, she hopes to work in a Special Collections library to expand its LGBTQ+ holdings.

The following students were finalists for the 2026 Breidenstine Award:

• Kayla Tracey '26 - biology, animal behavior; "Communicating Outdoor Cat Management on a College Campus."

• Hope Wentling - early, middle, and exceptional education; "The Marginalization of Social Studies and Science: Elementary Teachers' Perceptions."