Date: April 27, 2012
Contact: Carol Connelly, Director, Media & Communication Services, ext. 5267, cconnelly@pnc.edu

Annual PNC Writing Contest Winners Announced

WESTVILLE – The winners of the Purdue University North Central annual Student Writing Contest for the 2011- 2012 year have been announced by Robert Mellin, continuing lecturer of English and director of the writing contest. The winning entries are published in “ Portals ,” the annual PNC student literary journal.

The contest judging teams included faculty, staff as well as students. The winners were honored a recent banquet on campus.

The winning entries are:

English Composition Research Essay: first place - “Liberated Women as Weapons of Mass Destruction in Stephen King's Carrie and Christine” by Siara Zaremba, Valparaiso; second place – “Inside Out: The Shining as an Allegory of Repression” by Kristen Sheldon, New Buffalo, Mich; third place (tie) – “Cesarean Delivery Rates are Skyrocketing” by Laurie Reynolds, Chesterton; “Selfish Martyrdom,” by Amanda Hale, Michigan City.

Campus-Wide Research Essay: first place – “The Anti-Doping Policy in Sports: A Review” by Megan O'Malley, New Carlisle; second place – “The Correlation Between Sexual Assault and PTSD in the United States Military” by Nichole Murphy, Valparaiso; third place – “The Old World: Shaped by Economics and Disease” by Jeffrey S. Allen, Rensselaer.

Poetry: first place - “A Dream” by Kristen Sheldon, New Buffalo, Mich.; second place – Second (tie): “The Airheads” by Amedeo Madrid, Michigan City; “Brain Child” by Christina M. Fall, La Porte; third place – “Cherry Trees” by Alexandria Para, LaPorte.

Short Fiction: first place - “Robbed” by Brittany Nowak, La Porte; second place – “Grace” by Rachael Herbert-Varchetto, Knox; third place – “Marty's Morning” by Tacy Fletcher, La Porte.

Creative Nonfiction : first place – “My Life as a Purple Person” by Lauren Moore, Valparaiso; second place – “4/20” by Jordan Hart, Portage; third place – “Eulogy” by Frederick Tressler, Valparaiso.

The John J. Pappas Literary Award: first place – “Mothers and Fathers” by Justin Scott Steiner, Valparaiso; second place – “The Force of Ennui in T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land” by Siara Zaremba, Valparaiso; third place – “Toni Morrison and Mother Love” by Brenda Patterson, Valparaiso.

Special Topic Category: The State of the Campus – first place – “Smokin' Lessons: For An Interpreter-To-Be” by Tacy Fletcher, LaPorte; second place – “PNC: How Sustainable Are We?” by Megan O'Malley, New Carlisle.

Art: first place – “First Love” by Kristen Sheldon, New Buffalo, Mich.