{"id":3727,"date":"2013-05-24T09:30:58","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T14:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/?p=3727"},"modified":"2013-05-27T12:33:19","modified_gmt":"2013-05-27T17:33:19","slug":"cmu-announces-winners-of-annual-essay-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/2013\/cmu-announces-winners-of-annual-essay-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"CMU announces winners of annual essay contest"},"content":{"rendered":"<style><!--\n\/* Font Definitions *\/\n@font-face\n\t{font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\n\tmso-font-charset:78;\n\tmso-generic-font-family:auto;\n\tmso-font-pitch:variable;\n\tmso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;}\n@font-face\n\t{font-family:\"Cambria Math\";\n\tpanose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;\n\tmso-font-charset:0;\n\tmso-generic-font-family:auto;\n\tmso-font-pitch:variable;\n\tmso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}\n@font-face\n\t{font-family:Cambria;\n\tpanose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;\n\tmso-font-charset:0;\n\tmso-generic-font-family:auto;\n\tmso-font-pitch:variable;\n\tmso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}\n \/* Style Definitions *\/\np.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal\n\t{mso-style-unhide:no;\n\tmso-style-qformat:yes;\n\tmso-style-parent:\"\";\n\tmargin:0cm;\n\tmargin-bottom:.0001pt;\n\tmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\n\tfont-size:12.0pt;\n\tfont-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-fareast-font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\n\tmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;\n\tmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\n\tmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}\n.MsoChpDefault\n\t{mso-style-type:export-only;\n\tmso-default-props:yes;\n\tfont-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-fareast-font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\n\tmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;\n\tmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\n\tmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}\n@page WordSection1\n\t{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;\n\tmargin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt;\n\tmso-header-margin:36.0pt;\n\tmso-footer-margin:36.0pt;\n\tmso-paper-source:0;}\ndiv.WordSection1\n\t{page:WordSection1;}\n \/* List Definitions *\/\n@list l0\n\t{mso-list-id:1831360886;\n\tmso-list-template-ids:-1573720064;}\nol\n\t{margin-bottom:0cm;}\nul\n\t{margin-bottom:0cm;}\n--\n--><\/style>\n<p>Two students from Brandon, Man. and one student from Winnipeg, Man. are the winners of Canadian Mennonite University\u2019s (CMU) annual essay contest for Manitoba high school students interested in the humanities.<\/p>\n<p>The contest, judged by CMU faculty members from a number of disciplines within the Humanities, invited students to engage with questions about art, ethics, and theology.<\/p>\n<p>Emma Ball, a Grade 11 student at Ecole Secondaire Neelin High School in Brandon, came in first place with her essay, \u201cPoetry and the Working Class.\u201d Second place went to Jaiann Nagtegaal, a Grade 12 student at Kildonan East Collegiate in Winnipeg for an essay that tackled the question, \u201cDo Truth, Love, and Good Need Lies, Hate, and Evil to Be Meaningful?\u201d Third place went to Rebecca Storey, a Grade 11 student also from Neelin High School, for her essay, \u201cA Meaningless Mary Sue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/IMG_00000257-Version-2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3739\" alt=\"IMG_00000257 - Version 2\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/IMG_00000257-Version-2-250x300.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/IMG_00000257-Version-2-250x300.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/IMG_00000257-Version-2-856x1024.jpg 856w, https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/IMG_00000257-Version-2.jpg 1836w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a>Ball won $500, Nagtegaal won $300, and Storey took home $200.<\/p>\n<p>Students were invited to write a 950- to 1,100-word formal essay engaging one of three topics:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Do truth, love and good need lies, hate, and evil to be meaningful?<\/li>\n<li>George Orwell said that language \u201cought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.\u201d Discuss.<\/li>\n<li>Can public tax money legitimately be used to fund faith-based initiatives (e.g. social agencies, educational institutions, youth programs).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Ball says that she did not expect to win the contest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was exciting,\u201d she says, adding that she chose to write an essay in response to the George Orwell quotation because it was something she hadn\u2019t thought about before.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought I\u2019d form my opinion as I wrote the paper,\u201d she says. Her conclusion? \u201cLanguage needs to be both efficient, clear and have a purpose, but it also needs to be beautiful. We need to find a balance between practicality and beauty when we use it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Storey, winning $200 wasn\u2019t the only highlight of entering the contest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really like that the judges gave us feedback on our essays,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was really helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Paul Dyck, Dean of Humanities &amp; Sciences and Associate Professor of English at CMU, says judges were looking for essays that combined \u201cgood form and solid thinking along with some kind of creative reach.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt CMU, we believe in the importance of writing, and the importance of thinking through things clearly and imaginatively,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re really interested in cultivating that kind of work among our students, and recognizing and rewarding that kind of work among high school students.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an age of instant results, he adds, writing essays is still valuable. It allows people to take the time and energy to carefully think through important topics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat kind of activity is at the heart of the university,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two students from Brandon, Man. and one student from Winnipeg, Man. are the winners of Canadian Mennonite University\u2019s (CMU) annual essay contest for Manitoba high school students interested in the humanities. The contest, judged by CMU faculty members from a number of disciplines within the Humanities, invited students to engage with questions about art, ethics, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[25,5],"tags":[406,418,419,417,190,420,421],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3727"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3734,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3727\/revisions\/3734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}