The Freedom From Religion Foundation is proud to announce the 17 winners of the 2017 William Schultz High School Essay Contest.
FFRF has offered essay competitions to college students since 1979, high school students since 1994 and graduate students since 2010.
High school seniors were asked to write a personal persuasive essay about what they would you like to tell a believer in their life about why they chose freethought (atheism, agnosticism).
After carefully reviewing more than 170 essays, FFRF awarded six top prizes and 11 honorable mentions.
Winners are listed below and include the award amount and the college or university they will be attending. FFRF has paid out a total of $10,150 in award money for this contest this year.
First place
Zakaria Sharif, Stanford ($3,000)
Second place
Allison Wheeler, Centre College ($2,000)
Third place
Daniel Vogler, Princeton ($1,000)
Fourth place
Evan Muskopf, Rochester Institute of Technology ($750)
Fifth place
Ian Garvie, University of Northern British Columbia ($500)
Sixth place
Quinn Freidl, undeclared ($400)
Honorable mentions ($200 each)
Donald Fasce, Franklin and Marshall
Audrey Godwin, Vassar College
Phoebe Greene, Universoty of North Carolina-Wilmington
Alisha Griffin, Bucknell University
Hannah Hanson, Berklee College of Music
Alexander Hernandez, undeclared
Aya Keller, University of California-Berkeley
Luke, University of Alabama-Huntsville
Lindsay Philcox, Brandeis University
Tori Roberts, California State University-Stanislaus
Taryn Waite, Colby College
The high school contest is named for the late William J. Schultz, a Wisconsin member who died at 57. He was a mechanical engineer and cared deeply about FFRF's work, leaving a bequest that funds the award.
FFRF also thanks Dean and Dorea Schramm of Florida for providing a $100 bonus to students who are members of a secular student club or the Secular Student Alliance. The total of $10,150 reflects those bonuses.
The college student essay winners will be announced in the October issue and the grad student essays will be announced in the November issue.