The Freedom From Religion Foundation is proudly awarding $18,450 to the 12 winners and eight honorable mentions in the 2026 Kenneth L. Proulx Memorial Essay Contest for Ongoing College Students.
Currently enrolled college students (up to age 24) wrote on the topic of “Why President Trump is wrong that ‘you just can’t have a great country if you don’t have religion.’”
This contest is named for Kenneth L. Proulx, one of FFRF’s most generous benefactors, who died in 2019. The cupola at Freethought Hall, FFRF’s office in Madison, Wis., is called the “Above Us Only Sky Kenneth L. Proulx Cupola” or “Ken’s Cupola” for short.
The $1,000 prize for sixth place in the ongoing college competition is generously endowed by actor and FFRF Lifetime Member Mr. Madison Arnold. Madison, who is 90, has given a $30,000 endowment as a living bequest, which he calls a “pre-quest.”
Essay contest winners, their ages, the colleges or universities they are attending and the award amounts are listed below.
FIRST PLACE
Artem Khaiet, 21, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, $3,500.
SECOND PLACE
Astrid Jepson, 21, UCLA, $3,000.
THIRD PLACE
Alexander Safranak, 19, Bradley University, $2,500.
FOURTH PLACE
Hendrick Ventura Andeliz, 24, American Military University, $2,000.
FIFTH PLACE
Natalie Sowers, 19, Allegheny College, $1,500.
SIXTH PLACE (tie)
(MR. MADISON ARNOLD AWARD)
Whitney Brown, 19, Hutchinson Community College, $1,000.
Aaron Love, 19, University of Kentucky, $1,000.
SEVENTH PLACE
Sean-Patrick Dulcio, 20, Florida A&M University, $750.
EIGHTH PLACE
Ava Jackson, 19, Howard University, $500.
NINTH PLACE (tie)
Amelia Keefe, 20, University of Central Florida, $400.
Anh Nguyen, 20, Georgia Tech, $400.
TENTH PLACE
Kevin Xiong, 21, Baylor University, $300.
HONORABLE MENTIONS ($200 each)
Alfred Conway, 19, George Mason University.
Katherine Chow, 19, New York University.
Mason Gutierrez, 19, Northern Arizona University.
Rowen Hamilton, 21, University of Texas.
Jeremiah Jefferson, 20, College of Wooster.
Olayide Ogunse, 20, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Sapien Saldivar, 20, University of Texas.
Aimee Vega, 20, Purdue University.
FFRF thanks Lisa Treu for managing the details of this and FFRF’s other student essay competitions. It also would like to thank our volunteer and staff judges, including: Dan Barker, Anne Bendixen, Craig Crispin, Annie Laurie Gaylor, Susan Gould, Robert Holley, Sammi Lawrence, David Malcolm, Andrea Osburne, Rose Mary Sheldon, PJ Slinger, Jennifer Vines and Matthew Woodruff.
FFRF has offered essay competitions to college students since 1979, high school students since 1994, grad students since 2010, one explicitly for students of color/first in the family since 2016 and a fifth contest for law students since 2019.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With more than 40,000 members across the country, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
