Voting is open until early March for six $200 awards that recognize the most popular entries of the university's Human Rights and Social Justice Writing Contest sponsored by the Writing Excellence Initiative.
All Elon University students can vote between now and March 3 for “People’s Choice” awards to be given this spring to six people who entered a contest sponsored by the school’s Writing Excellence Initiative.
The $200 awards will go to one entry in each of six categories of the Human Rights and Social Justice Writing Contest.
The People’s Choice Awards are in addition to the $3,600 in prizes that will be awarded by faculty and staff judges in the inaugural contest. Winners of all prizes will be announced before Spring Break.
“We received more than 100 amazing entries by the end of finals week in the fall,” said Paul Anderson, director of Writing Across the University. “In addition to the prizes that panels of faculty and staff judges will award, we want to let students choose their favorites.”
The students’ contest entries address an extraordinary range of global and local topics, from poverty and gang life in El Salvador, to social inequality in the U.S. education system, to the Department of Justice investigation of the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office. The contest’s theme of human rights and social justice caught the imagination and passion of Elon students, Anderson said.
“This topic speaks to the heart of an Elon education,” he said.
Entries include research papers, photos, videos, poems (one read aloud by the author), newspaper articles and news broadcasts. Surprising to Anderson, the category that so far has received the most votes is for entries written in languages other than English.
Students, faculty, staff and friends of the university can view the student entries at the Writing Center website. At the website, students can log in to vote for their favorites.