Quality of Jefferson essay contest
continues to improve This year's top three winners
have placed in the contest in past years Natasha Nader / News Editor
Quality over quantity appeared to be the theme for the tenth
annual Philip L. Carret Endowment Thomas Jefferson Essay
Contest, with only six students competitors.
"We'll take the quality of the papers over the
numbers any day," history professor Clyde Ellis said. He
said he thought this year's prompt was "by far the
most difficult," and the winner of the contest, senior
history major Neal Dugre, agreed.
Dugre won this year's contest with his essay titled
"An Identity of Contrast: Defining America in the Age of
Jefferson." Assistant professor of History Charles Irons
said not only was Dugre's essay different from the other
essayists,' but he also presented viewpoints and
observations different from most scholars.
The winners of the contest were announced at a banquet April
24. This is Dugre's second time winning the competition;
he won in 2004. He said he enjoys the contest because it
shows the university's emphasis on academics. He received
a $1,000 prize and will also have the opportunity to visit
Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello in the summer.
Dugre will be attending graduate school at Northwestern
University in the fall.
The second and third place winners are also prior prize
recipients of the contest. The second place winner, senior
political science major Ian Henderson, won last year. The
third place winner, sophomore history major Jessica Keough,
received second place last year.
"All three were top of the line," Mark Albertson,
University Registrar and assistant to the Provost, said.
"We'd have been proud to have any as the first place
winner."
The contest is unique to Elon University, and Provost Gerry
Francis said he is impressed by the work of the students.
"I have seen the contest grow, mostly in the quality of
what we're doing," he said.
The faculty members who judged the essays were Ellis, Irons,
assistant history professor Michael Carignan, communications
professor David Copeland and Associate Provost and history
professor Nancy Midgette.
Contact Natasha Nader at pendulum@elon.edu. or at
278-7247 | 
Natasha Nader / Photographer From left: Senior Ian Henderson, second place, senior
Neal Dugre, first place, and sophomore Jessica Keough, third
place, were the winners of the tenth annual Philip L. Carret
Endowment Thomas Jefferson Essay Contest. The Question: "Britain and France, for Thomas Jefferson at least,
posed philosophical as well as political challenges. In his
ongoing attempts to define what it meant to be
'American' after he had helped the thirteen colonies
to declare independence, Jefferson often looked back across
the Atlantic at European ideas and ideals about national
identity. How did his intellectual and personal encounters
with European societies shape Jefferson's conceptions of
American identity and the development of new national ideas
and institutions?" |
