A framed certificate and a cash gift were presented to Brendan at a luncheon ceremony at the Cultural Education Center in Albany on October 26, 2009.  His teacher, Drew Levy, was also recognized at the luncheon.

Using a variety of historical record repositories such as the Library of Congress, the Association for Cultural Equity, the Smithsonian Institute, and the Woody Guthrie Foundation, Brendan created an excellent documentary explaining Alan Lomax's role as a folksong hunter.  The judges were very impressed with how Brendan "effectively integrates primary sources/music of the time with Lomax's project to capture and document music and culture."  The judges were also impressed with Brendan's respect for preserving records and documenting cultures, for thinking like an archivist and historian, and preserving and placing folk music into historical context.

The Student Research Awards are named for Regent Emerita Laura Chodos and her late husband, Dr. Robert Chodos, who created an endowment to encourage the education uses of historical records in the classroom, are presented annually to a student or group of students in New York State who have made outstanding use of historical records in the research.  They recognize student work for demonstrating excellence based on specific criteria: using a variety of historical records, drawing on information from those records, and interpreting and integrating that information with creativity and imagination.