Diana McDonald, a now retired English professor, wanted a way to motivate students who loved to write. Besides the writing classes offered at Parkland, there was not much incentive for students to develop their writing outside of the classroom. As a result, McDonald decided to create the ‘McDonald Writing Challenge’, a contest that awards $500 to the “Parkland student essay that best connects personal experiences, insights, and observations to larger, ongoing conversations in our world – politics, philosophy, science, media, justice, family, race, happiness, the environment, or other interests.”
It is an annual contest open to any student enrolled in a humanities course. The submission can be any piece of writing; whether it was an essay for a class, personal statement or research paper. While McDonald encourages students to have some sort of personal connection to the essay submissions, McDonald has awarded other essays such as scientific research papers.
The current chair of the contest, Seth Mendelowitz emphasizes the open nature of the contest, saying “[A] very diverse group of students have won [from] all walks of life [and] all parts of the world.”
Previous contest winners include essays about an Asian American and her struggles with her identity growing up in a midwest town. The exploration of the NeuroPace, a medical device that monitors the brain activity that induces seizures, and its future potential. As well as the exploitation of mental health diagnostics for profit and much more.
After the essay submission deadline in May, a committee of readers will read essay submissions and choose a handful to be considered by McDonald who has the final say of the winner. McDonald occasionally has difficulty in choosing just one winner, leading to multiple years of two, three and even four winners.
Due to humanities professors’ busy schedules, they may forget to tell their students about this contest. As a result, exposure to the contest largely comes from word of mouth and posters hung up around Parkland. Seth notes that because of this, “[the] average [amount of entrants] is 20 students”, also noting that he “would love it if more students submit.”
Seth also points out that this number could be caused by “a lot of students not being confident that they have a winning essay.” Students who are struggling in any part of their essay are encouraged to visit the writing lab in the learning commons at Parkland. Writing professors can provide help from any stage of the writing process, from brainstorming to revision, helping students to craft a strong essay.
Students interested in this contest should visit McDonald Writing Challenge for more information. Previous contest winner essays can be found here, The Diana McDonald Writer’s Challenge | Student Works | Parkland College.
