Here are my students' prize essays. They are from different perspectives and bring different gifts
and insights to texts that mean so much to me. They are thoughtful, passionate, and honest. I am
truly a better person for having read them, and I am humbled and proud that I was a part of their
being written. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
Honorable Mention, Spring 1998
Presented to David Champagne, for his moving look at sin in Dante's Inferno, in which he brings in Dead Man Walking and The Little Mermaid.
The Margaret Cecilia Baney Award-Winning Essay, Fall 1999
Presented to Erica Depalo, for her meticulous essay on Dostoevsky and Existentialism.
Honorable Mention, Fall 1999
Presented to Kathryn Kramers, for her detailed and pereceptive analysis of free will in Milton's Paradise Lost.
Womens Authors Award, Honorable Mention, Fall 1999
Presented to Jaylynn Peck, for her thoughtful and provocative look at the character of Antigone
Honorable Mention, Spring 2000
Presented to Chris Updike, for his cogent analysis of the virtuous pagans and the virtual Christians in Dante's Comedy.
The Margaret Cecilia Baney Award-Winning Essay, Fall 2000
Presented to Amy Barone, for her profoundly beautiful essay on Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground
Honorable Mention, Fall 2001
Presented to Colleen O'Boyle, for her remarkably clear and focused look at Moby-Dick: her analysis of Queequeg's coffin is especially well done.