Essay Contest Archives

Each year STILLPOINT and the Jerusalem and Athens Forum sponsor an essay contest open to all current and past participants in the program. Topics are chosen that challenge students to address an important current issue in light of reading and seminar discussions. A winner (•) and two honorable mentions are named each year.

Here are the winners and honorable mentions from past years.

2022

• "Charity: Standing Against the Battle Mentality" by Libby Trudeau '23
• "The Quietness of Virtue" by Grace Sullivan '24
• "The Ethos of our Forefathers" by Joan Ndekezi '23

2020-21 | Courage in Crisis
Symposium 2020 challenged the Gordon community to consider how to live out courage in the context of crises—like a global pandemic, national turmoil, isolation and uncertainty? A few questions we explored: How do integrity and courage intersect? Does courage require a position of power, or can the weak and disenfranchised also be courageous? What role does wisdom play in separating courage and recklessness?

2021

• "Mundane Crises" by Kate Walker '22
• "Silent Courage" by Serafina Zotter '23
• "The Abstract Versus the Particular" by Jay Kum '21

2020

• "Pleading Guilty: Dwindling Literacy in the Information Age" by Catherin Corbin '22
• "Fact of Fiction: The Role of Humility in Seeking Wisdom" by Joanna Sheldon '22
• "Is it Noise, News or Knowledge?" by Cam Grinnell '22

2019 | Christianity in the Majority World
Symposium 2019 invited the Gordon community to explore a shared faith within a world-wide context. Such an examination caused us to consider many questions such as, How has globalization impacted the Church? What does it mean to be "brothers and sisters in Christ" to Christians suffering lethal persecution? Contestants were asked to offer their reflections on these and many other questions.

• "Christianity in the Majority World" by Devon Leslie, '21

2018 | Hope in Suffering
Symposium 2018 offered a chance to delve into the "living hope" that we claim "through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3).  The crucifixion is the central reason why Christians are able to have hope in suffering. Meanwhile we find ourselves surrounded by the brokenness of our earthly home. Tragedies, scarcity, injustice and pain are the reality of daily life—as are rebirth, creativity, innovation and eternal salvation. Contestants were asked to offer their reflections on hope in suffering. 

• "Suffering in Hope" by Meredith Free, '20

2017 | “The Church’s One Foundation: United as One Body or by Schism Rent Asunder?”
At Gordon and in Christian communities around the world, the tenets of Christianity are recited communally in the Apostles’ Creed. The line “I believe in… the holy catholic church” inspired Samuel Stone’s 1886 hymn “The Church’s One Foundation.” The hymn declares that we are part of the same body—the Body of Christ—yet acknowledges that this Body is “by schisms rent asunder.” This spring, students in the Jerusalem and Athens Forum, Gordon’s great books honors course, submitted essays exploring this discrepancy.

•  "Church, History and Blood Ecumenism: The Potent Desire for Union in Times of Peril​" by Madeline Linnell ’17
o  "Time Heals All Wounds" by Davis Metzger ’19
o  "The Church, Guardian of Truth—Wait, What Church?" by Morgan Clayton ’19

2016 | Why Choose the Liberal Arts?
In "great books" programs, contemporary students to encounter profound thinkers from throughout the ages: philosophers, poets and novelists, foundational scientists, theologians and political thinkers. Each year a group of Gordon students work through these challenging texts and ideas together in the Jerusalem and Athens Forum. For the 2016 JAF essay contest, students focused on the very nature of their joint enterprise with essays that make the case for the liberal arts. 

•  "Glass Houses and the Liberal Arts" by Kevin Neil ’17
o  "The Imago Dei and the Liberal Arts" by India Boland ’17
o  "Swimming with Giants" by Hannah Wardell ’17

2015 | Appearance and Reality
JAF participants and alumni of the program were invited to explore the 2015 Symposium topic, "Why is it that what seems to be often is not what is?"—and to integrate into their essay relevant reflections on works of philosophy, literature and theology that they encountered as JAF participants.

•  "On the Reality of Hope" by Hannah Wardell ’17
o  "It Tastes Good" by Sam Sherratt ’15
o  "Appearance & Reality" by Christy Urbano ’16

2014 | The Presence of the Past
Contestants were invited to reflect on the 2014 Symposium topic for this year's competition: "The Presence of the Past: How History, Memory, and Tradition Shape Our Lives." Essays offered relevant reflections on texts from the JAF syllabus.

•  "In Which an English Major Pretends to Understand History" by Christy Urbano '16
o  "Trail-blazers" by Amaylah Israel '16
o  "untitled" by Maria Constantine '14

2013 | What is Beauty?
Contestants were invited to reflect on the Symposium topic for this year's competition. Essays offered relevant reflections on texts from the JAF syllabus.

•  "For This We Have Been Made" by Matthew Reese '15
o  "Beauty Transcends Logic" by Jaimie DiBernardo '15
o  "Beauty as Experience" by Ian Isaac '15

2012 | Politics and its Limits in Christian Perspective
Taking their cue from standard thinkers from the JAF reading list--Plato, Augustine, Dante, Luther, Calvin, Weber, and others--students develop essays on the promise and peril of contemporary political engagement.

•  "Semper reformanda" by Jeanette Christianson '12
o "Political Proof Texting" by Dawn Cianci '14
o  "Fair and Balanced vs. Divine Sovereignty" by Matt Clemmer '13

​2011 | The Seven Deadly Sins
Taking their cue from Dante’s Purgatorio, students develop a broadly accessible essay on one of the seven deadly sins: pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, lust.

•  "Acedia" by Tala Strauss '13
o "Too Busy for God?" by Mark Whitfield '13
o  "Untitled" by Kyra Sliwinski '11