Contact: Sasha Steinberg
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Students from Mississippi, Michigan, Tennessee and Texas are 2017 winners of Mississippi State’s Maroon Edition Essay Contest.
The competition is sponsored each year by Maroon and Write, the university’s quality enhancement program to boost student writing skills. First-place winners receive $500; second- and third-place, $300 and $100, respectively.
Essay subjects come from Maroon Edition, the annual common reading experience program for incoming MSU freshmen. Upperclassmen and graduate students, along with faculty and staff members, also are encouraged to join in reading the selected book and participate in related activities.
International best-selling author Ashley Rhodes-Courter’s “Three Little Words: A Memoir” was both the reading selection and essay contest topic for the 2016-17 academic year.
First-place winners recently read their essays at a celebratory luncheon at Mitchell Memorial Library.
Maroon and Write Co-Director Deborah Lee said all of this year’s winning essays will be archived and available for viewing in the MSU Libraries’ Institutional Repository.
Freshman winners included:
—First, Madeline E. Crow, now a sophomore industrial engineering major from Kingsport, Tennessee.
—Second, Mary Catherine Beard, now a junior biological engineering/biomedical engineering major from Lufkin, Texas.
—Third, Emily L. Tingle, a freshman political science and communication/public relations double-major from Vicksburg.
Upperclassman winners included:
—First, Windie V. Jenkins, a junior business administration major at MSU-Meridian.
—Second, Noah F. Van Hartesveldt, a senior geoscience/professional geology major from Grand Rapids, Michigan.
—Third, Benjamin D. “Ben” Pace, a senior biological sciences/pre-dental major from Collinsville.
“The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates,” a compelling story by author Wes Moore, is Mississippi State’s 2017 Maroon Edition common reading program book selection.
Moore is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at Mississippi State’s Fall Convocation in August. In addition to his address at Convocation, the formal beginning of the new academic year, Moore will spend time with students and faculty during his visit.
For more about Maroon and Write, visit www.qep.msstate.edu; Maroon Edition, www.maroonedition.msstate.edu.
MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.