The Freedom From Religion Foundation is proud to announce the 11 winners and six honorable mentions of the 2023 Kenneth L. Proulx Memorial Essay Contest for Ongoing College Students. FFRF has paid out a total of $17,400 in award money to this year’s college contest winners.

Currently enrolled college students (up to age 24) wrote on the topic of “What I would tell Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene about the harm of Christian nationalism.” They penned essays, in the form of a letter, telling Greene why her espousal of Christian nationalism is antithetical to secular American principles. 

This contest is named for Kenneth L. Proulx, FFRF’s most generous benefactor, 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. Arnold, who is 87, has given a $30,000 endowment as a living bequest, what he calls a “pre-quest.”

Essay contest winners, their ages, the colleges or universities they are attending and the award amounts are listed below, and winning essays are reprinted or excerpted in this issue.
FIRST PLACE
Skylar Blumenauer, 18, George Washington University, $3,500. Read Skylar's Speech Here.
SECOND PLACE
Brooke Langis, 19, Clark University, $3,000. Read Brooke's Essay Here.
THIRD PLACE
Jessica Oakes, 21, Ferris State University, $2,500. Read Jessica's Essay Here.
FOURTH PLACE
Catherine Laver, 19, University of British Columbia, $2,000. Read Catherine's Essay Here.
FIFTH PLACE
Sophie Godin, 20, St. Francis Xavier University, $1,500. Read Sophie's Essay Here.
SIXTH PLACE (MR. MADISON ARNOLD WINNER)
Peter Huerta, 24, Guttman Community College, $1,000. Read Peter's Essay Here.
SEVENTH PLACE
Valentina Jaeger, 20, University of Central Missouri, $750. Read Valentina's Essay Here.
Montana Stake, 24, Southern New Hampshire University, $750. Read Montana's Essay Here.
EIGHTH PLACE
Sophie Olson, 21, University of Minnesota, $500. Read Sophie's Essay Here.
NINTH PLACE
Ted Kwee-Bintoro, 19, University of Pennsylvania, $400. Read Ted's Essay Here.
TENTH PLACE
Aubrey Echard, 22, Kennesaw State University, $300. Read Aubrey's Essay Here.
HONORABLE MENTIONS ($200 each)
Read Essays from all Honorable Mentions Here.

Evan Brown, 19, University of Missouri – Columbia.
Matthew Quall, 21, University of Washington – Seattle.
Gary Ramee, Jr., 23, Louisiana State University.
Katherine Shaw, 20, University of Kentucky.
Jeremy Yiu, 20, University of California-Davis.
Madison Zitlaw, 20, Indiana University.

FFRF also thanks Lisa Treu for managing the details of this and FFRF’s other student essays competitions. And we couldn’t judge these contests without our volunteer and staff judges, including: Don Ardell, Dan Barker, David Chivers, Jon S. Galehouse, Annie Laurie Gaylor, Russell Gibson, Ricki Grunberg, Tim Hatcher, Linda Josheff, Dan Kettner, Brianna Knoppow, Sammi Lawrence, Gloria Marquardt, Chris O’Connell, Andrea Osburne, JoAnn Papich, Sue Schuetz, Rose Mary Sheldon, PJ Slinger and Chance Wimberly.

FFRF has offered essay competitions to college students since 1979, high school students since 1994, grad students since 2010, one for students of color since 2016 and a fifth contest for law students since 2019. 

“Christian nationalism is becoming more and more of a destabilizing force in this country,” says FFRf Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “We were heartened by the essays showing the younger generation is prepared to counter this undemocratic movement.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with more than 40,000 members across the country. FFRF protects the constitutional separation between state and church and educates about nontheism.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is proud to announce the 10 top winners and eight honorable mentions in the 2023 Cornelius Vander Broek Grad/“Older” Student Essay Competition.

FFRF has paid out a total of $18,050 in award money for this contest. Students were asked to write on the topic of “Is secularism the ‘savior’ of American democracy?”

The winners, their ages, the colleges or universities they are attending and the award amount are listed below.

FIRST PLACE
Sung Bin Roh, 24, University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, $3,500. Read Sung's Essay Here.
SECOND PLACE
Sam McCullough, 25, University of Washington’s Information School, $3,000. Read Sam's Essay Here.
THIRD PLACE
Shea Dunlop, 24, Pace University, $2,500. Read Shea's Essay Here.
FOURTH PLACE
Stephanie Zamarripa, 27, Harvard Divinity School, $2,000. Read Stephanie's Essay Here.
FIFTH PLACE
Sukhvir Singh, 25, Rutgers Law School, $1,500. Read Sukhvir's Essay Here.
SIXTH PLACE (tie)
Katelyn Grant, 23, La Roche University, $1,000. Read Katelyn's Essay Here.
Jacob Jackson, 27, Blinn College, $1,000. Read Jacob's Essay Here.
SEVENTH PLACE
Marah Sabbah, 23, UCLA, $750. Read Marah's Essay Here.
EIGHTH PLACE
William Rabbermann, 23, Missouri University of Science and Technology, $500. Read William's Essay Here.
NINTH PLACE
Zachary Mota, 29, Case Western Reserve University, $400. Read Zachary's Essay Here.
TENTH PLACE
Ryan Slaughter, 24, Texas A&M University, Bush School, $300.

HONORABLE MENTIONS ($200 each)
Read Essays from all Honorable Mentions Here.

Jesse Chen, 30, Wayne State University.
Anthony Corbo, 29, Florida Atlantic University.
Dylan Custer, 26, Daytona State College.
Karla Goodwin, 29, Southern New Hampshire University.
Alexia Shand, 28, Borough of Manhattan Community College.
Zoe Sirotiak, 26, Iowa State University.
Bo Thompson, 28, Sonoma State.
Sabrina Whitney, 26, California State University, Sacramento.

FFRF thanks Lisa Treu for managing the details of this and FFRF’s other student essays competitions. And we couldn’t judge these contests without our volunteer and staff judges, including: Don Ardell, Dan Barker, David Chivers, Jon S. Galehouse, Annie Laurie Gaylor, Russell Gibson, Ricki Grunberg, Tim Hatcher, Linda Josheff, Dan Kettner, Brianna Knoppow, Sammi Lawrence, Gloria Marquardt, Chris O’Connell, Andrea Osburne, JoAnn Papich, Sue Schuetz, Rose Mary Sheldon, PJ Slinger and Chance Wimberly.

FFRF has offered essay competitions to college students since 1979, high school students since 1994, grad students since 2010, one for students of color since 2016 and a fifth contest for law students since 2019.

“These students are making strides to be future leaders of the secular movement,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Elevating their voices will spotlight how younger generations are speaking up against Christian nationalism.”

More detailed bios and short essays by the winning students will appear in the upcoming December issue of Freethought Today, FFRF’s lively 24-page (almost) monthly newspaper.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with more than 40,000 members across the country. FFRF protects the constitutional separation between state and church and educates about nontheism.