Annual PNC Writing Contest Winners Announced

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.


Visit PNC on Facebook
Visit the PNC Website
1401 S US 421
Westville, IN 46391
Phone: 219-785-5200

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.