UW-System’s Liberal Arts Essay Competition
UW-La Crosse Deadline January 27, 2009
Sponsored by the University of Wisconsin System Advisory Group on the Liberal Arts (SAGLA)
Eligibility
This essay competition is open to any UW System undergraduate student in academic good standing (UW College or four-year institution) who has completed a minimum of 30 credit hours by the end of the Fall Semester 2009, and who has at least one semester remaining (Fall 2010) as a full-time student.
Award
Three awards for $2,000 each are available (one to a student from the UW Colleges and two to students from the UW comprehensive and doctoral institutions).
This Year’s Topic
Liberal education is often characterized as transformative. Reflect on your education*—and on what it means to be “transformed.” When have you been affected by a transformative educational experience? What did you learn about yourself or about the world in general as a function of that pivotal experience? How have you been changed, and what do you imagine/hope will be the long-term impact of this change? The scholarship committee strongly suggests you include both narrative and analysis in your submission.
*Consider classes or particular teachers; you may also choose to consider experiences beyond the classroom, such as independent research, study abroad, service learning, and learning communities.
Submission
- The deadline for submission of essay and transcript is January 27, 2010. Please note that the UW System webpage about this competition has a deadline in February. The February deadline is the date by which our office has to submit the finalists we’ve selected for consideration at a state-wide level. Make sure you submit your materials to us by January 27, 2010, or you will miss the deadline and we won’t be able to consider your submission!
Submit the below items electronically via e-mail attachment to provost@uwlax.edu. Only electronic submissions will be accepted.
- Original essay:
- Submission must be 1,000-1,250 words in length.
- Submission must be typed and double-spaced.
- Essay must include a title page with the following information:
- Title of essay
- Your name
- Your major
- The name of the institution you attend
- Your college
- Your home address
- Your e-mail address
- Your telephone number
- The following statement: “I hereby affirm that this is my own work, an original essay, and agree that it will become the property of the UW System Board of Regents and that it can be reproduced in the public domain.”
- Unofficial UW-L transcript available on TALON.
- Original essay:
Selection Notification
- Three essays will be selected by a UW-L review committee for submission to the UW System Advisory Group on the Liberal Arts. Applicants of the three selected essays will be notivied by February 19, 2010.
- Final selection of winning essays will be determined by a group of judges from the UW System Advisory Group on the Liberal Arts (SAGLA). Recipients will be notified in spring 2010.
Essays from Previous Winners
- Lisa Braun, UW-Richland, for “A Vote for Understanding”
- Melissa P. Hepokoski, UW-Superior, for “My Piece of the Web"
- Gillian Stoddard Leatherberry, UW-Madison, for “The Spaces Between: Liberal Arts and Citizenship”
- Cheryl K. Davis, UW-Oshkosh, for “The Choices of Success”
- Katie Jo Pockat, UW-Marinette, for “To My Dear Little Brother: Everything You Must Know About Your Liberal Education"
- Vidhya Raju, UW-Madison, for “An Engineer’s Advice: a Discussion about College and the Value of a Liberal Arts Education”
- Rebecca Ford, UW-Madison, for “Interrogating Rajasthan: Poverty in the Developing World and the Liberal Arts”
- Brian Reisinger, UW-Eau Claire, for “My Liberal Education: Repairing the Foundation of Journalism"
- Heather Damitz, UW-Sheboygan, for "Significant and Applicable Knowledge: Liberal Arts in the 21st Century"
- Andrew Myszewski, UW-Madison, for "Empowering Citizens for the Twenty-First Century"
- Jennifer Urbanek, UW-Milwaukee, for "The Liberal Arts: Preserving Humanity"