All students are invited to submit their essays for the 2006 Philip L. Carret “Thomas Jefferson Essay Competition.” Submissions are due no later than 4:30 p.m., Monday, April 3 and should be submitted to Melissa Holmes in the Registrar’s office. The first-place prize is $1,000 and a trip to Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson. Second-place prize is $600 and third-place prize is $400.
Essays of approximately 1,500 words should be submitted in response to this 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 oftenn 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?”
In writing their essays, students may want to consult a core of materials placed on reserve in Belk Library.
All entries must be typed, double-spaced, on numbered pages, with a cover sheet containing the title only. The writer’s name should not appear on the paper itself. Instead, an index card containing the author’s name, local address, phone number and the title of the paper should be attached.
Essays must be fully documented using any standard documentation style and must contain an annotated bibliography. Annotated means that you write 1-3 sentences evaluating each entry.
All entries will be judged by a faculty panel. The identities of the authors will not be revealed to the judges until judging is complete.
Winners will be announced at the Carret/Jefferson dinner on Monday, April 24.
Questions about the competition should be directed to Clyde Ellis, associate professor of history, at 278-6417, or Mark Albertson, registrar and assistant to the provost, at 278-6677.
Philip Carret was a long-time New York investor who visited Elon in 1996. He so loved Elon that in 1997 he endowed an annual essay competition designed to have students reflect on the ideals and principles embodied by Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Carret died in 1998 at age 101.