The 2015 Hartford UConn Undergraduate Essay Contest Has Concluded

 

Congratulations to Sarah Al-Arshani, winner of the 2015 Writing Center Essay Contest for her essay “Consequences of a Plight for Social Order,” written for Hannah Marks-Hamilton’s English 1010 class.

The variety of essays of incredibly high quality made selecting the best writing quite difficult, and we appreciate the effort of all writers on the Hartford campus. The judges were impressed with all of the material we received, and we would like to highlight a few additional writers who were near-winners themselves.

Gary Cullinan’s “Paradise Lost and How the Pilgrim’s Plight Led to the Downfall of the American Indian,” written for J. Asia Rowe’s English 2100 course.

Kailene Rampone’s “In the Name of Love,” written for Ron Glaz’s English 1010 course.

Kathryn Bratslavsky’s “The Effects of Facebook on Mood and Self-Esteem,” written for Jason Anastas’s Psychology 2100WQ course.

Christopher Tracy’s “Infinite Jest: Complexing Secrecy’s Stolid Stereotype,” written for Yvette Schacher’s English 1201 course.

 

Past Hartford UConn Essay Contest Winners

2014

Congratulations to Sierra Rice, winner of the 2014 Writing Center Essay Contest for her essay “Nation of the Controlled”, written for Matthew Gagnon’s English 1010 class. You can read an interview with Sierra here.

Though it made their job of selecting one winner more difficult, the judges were very impressed with the number and quality of essays received. The work we saw in these essays reflects well on the work being done by our Hartford students and their instructors.

In addition to the first-place winner, the judges felt a few essays deserved honorable mentions (the instructors of the classes for which these papers were written are provided in parentheses):

“The King of Horror: Stephen King’s Use of Writing and Drinking to Reclaim Power” by Samantha Lawrence (Instructor: Nina Boug Lichenstein)

“The Great Captain” by Jamol Lettman (Instructor: Thomas Shea)

“The Common Misconception about the American Democracy” by Dacia Ann Walcott (Instructor: Brian Waddell)

“Not All Women Who Wander Are Lost” by Amanda Wright (Instructor: Anne Wettersten)

 

2013 

First prize: Bo Lun Yang, “Doubting Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt”

First Runner Up: Alyssa Coleman, “The Power of Inborn Human Behavior”

Honorable Mentions:  Austin Deschenes, “Reality as a Product of Human Perception”; & Dacia Walcott, “Love, both a Blessing and a Curse”

(UConn instructors are free to use copies of these essays for instructional purposes, but please remove the author’s name before distributing. Copies with name removed are available in the Writing Center.)

Again, thank you to everyone who submitted an essay this year. We received, as always, a very strong set of essay entries, and the choice of only a few winners was a difficult one.

 

2012

Sean Dexter, “Love and Family as Methods of Social Control”

 

2011

Diana DeGuzman, “Panoptical Positioning”