2014 Essay & Photo Contest Winners

Essay Contest Winners

Last month we announced the winners of the Humanist Essay Contest for Young Men and Women of North America and we’re now pleased to share the top-three essays. Prizes were awarded for originality of thought, sense of emotional engagement, clarity and quality of presentation, amount of research evidenced, and future potential shown by the author.

Read our top three entries below. Essays were lightly edited.

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	$1,000 First Prize “The Importance of Music Education” by Alexis Kalivretenos (Includes award certificate and a three-year membership in the American Humanist Association) Click to read
	2nd Prize “The Semantics of Happiness” by Olive Esther Kuhn (Includes award certificate, a collection of humanist books, and a three-year membership in the American Humanist Association) Click to read
	3rd Prize “The Silent Polar Bear” by Vicente Lovelace (Includes award certificate and three-year membership in the American Humanist Association) Click to read

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Honorable Mentions

(includes one-year membership in the American Humanist Association)

“The American Dream,” by Hannah Hammond
“In the Shadows,” by Jennifer Riedford

Sincere thanks go to all the students who entered, to those who inspired them, and to the contest judges: Jennifer Bardi, Bob Bhaerman, Rob Boston, Fred Edwords, Karen Gajewski, Rebecca Hale, Jennifer Kalmanson, Howard Katz, Joshua Meyers, Susan Sackett, July Simpson, Jason Torpy, and Mike Werner.

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Photo Contest Winner

This series of photos was taken by Juan Villalba and submitted by Bill McGuire, who is seen in each photo at the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Captions by Bill McGuire.