The Freedom From Religion Foundation is proud to award $15,450 to the top 10 winners of the 2026 Cornelius Vander Broek Graduate/Older Student Essay Competition.
Students were asked to write on the prompt: “Why the 250-year-old United States of America is not a Christian nation.” Essays were to include details on why the U.S. government is not based on God or Christianity and include and refute other timely examples of legislators, public officials or other individuals promoting the Christian nation myth.
FFRF conferred 10 top prizes this year.
FIRST PLACE
Andy Baldassarre, 27, St. Louis University, $3,500.
SECOND PLACE
Madolyn Henderson, 26, Arizona State University, $3,000.
THIRD PLACE
Aleyna Barry, 22, University of Washington, $2,500.
FOURTH PLACE
Megan Powell, 22, Loyola University Maryland, $2,000.
FIFTH PLACE
Leyla Roque, 29, Lake Sumter State College, $1,500.
SIXTH PLACE
Amelia Dobbins, 23, Pacific University, $1,000.
SEVENTH PLACE
Scott Burden, 24, Duke University, $750.
EIGHTH PLACE
Makenna Doherty, 26, Mercer County Community College, $500.
NINTH PLACE
Ahndiya Kiburi, 24, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, $400.
TENTH PLACE
Cassandra T., 27, University of Houston, $300.
FFRF thanks Lisa Treu for managing the details of this and FFRF’s other student essay competitions. FFRF would also like to thank its volunteers and staff for reading and judging the essays, including Dan Barker, Anita Barrett, Michael Berntsen, David Chivers, Craig Crispin, Annie Laurie Gaylor, Susan Gould, Richard Grimes, Tim Hatcher, Jeffrey LaVicka, Sammi Lawrence, Katay Maes, David Malcolm, Jason Mosebach, Barbara Nolta, Andrea Osburne, Lisa Rae Robison, Rose Mary Sheldon and PJ Slinger.
FFRF has offered essay competitions to college students since 1979, high school students since 1994, grad students since 2010, one that is now dedicated to 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 over 40,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
