52nd Annual Writing Contest winners announced
Congratulations to the winners of the 52nd Annual Illinois Tech Writing Contest! Hosted annually by the Department of Humanities, the contest showcases the writing talents of Illinois Tech undergraduate students from across the university. This year's students represent the Armour College of Engineering, College of Science, and Lewis College of Human Sciences.
Edwin H. Lewis Prize for Fiction
1st: Zulema Hunt (Biology, 4th year), "Evolution"
2nd: Saja Hamayel (Digital Humanities, 4th year), "Dear Diary, I Think it's Time for Bed"
3rd: Cheryl Lininger (Electrical and Computer Engineering, 4th year), "Peach Pits"
Edwin H. Lewis Prize for Nonfiction
1st: Cady Rodney (Biology, 4th year), "Gender Socialization and the Pressures to Conform"
2nd: Giovanni Centeno (Digital Humanities, 4th year), "Pawcurious: Examining Otherkin Identity in Virtual Safe Spaces"
3rd: Cheryl Lininger (Electrical and Computer Engineering, 4th year), "Lucky Ones: A How To"
The prizes for fiction and non-fiction are named for Edwin H. Lewis, an english professor at the Lewis Institute, one of the forerunners of Illinois Tech, from 1895 to 1936. Among other classes, Professor Lewis taught Shakespeare and apparently looked somewhat like him too. It is said that students would come to campus just for his lectures, often without even being enrolled.
Henry Knepler Freshman Essay Prize
1st: Alexandra Detweiler (Physics, 1st year), "The Language that Isn't a Language At All"
2nd: Josh Bowden ( Computer Science, 1st year), "The Implicit Culture of the Programmer: A Framework for the Underlying Content Values on /r/programming"
3rd: Ashma Manandhar (Computer Science, 1st year), "Letter"
The prize for freshman essays was renamed in 2015 to honor the late Henry Knepler’s 40 years at Illinois Tech as Professor of English and chair of the Department of Humanities. The prize was established from gifts made in Knepler’s memory by friends and his wife Myrna at the time of his passing in 1999. Myrna is an alumna of Illinois Tech, receiving her doctorate in Linguistics, and devoted her career to English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction.
Mollie Cohen Prize for Poetry
1st: Zulema Hunt (Biology, 4th year), "We Are Perfect On Our Own"
2nd: Alexandra Detweiler (Physics, 1st year), "gravity: a villanelle"
3rd: Dennis Tran (Psychology, 2nd year), "It's not written"
The poetry prize was established in 1965 by Mollie S. Cohen, a retiring Illinois Tech english professor. Professor Cohen was a native Chicagoan, and attended Lewis Institute before doing graduate work at the University of Chicago and at the Sorbonne in Paris. During her time as a professor at Illinois Tech, she worked closely with women students and international students.
