Student Activist Awards
Since 1979, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has conducted annual essay competitions to bestow cash scholarships on freethinking high school and college students. Activist students were honored at several national conventions in the 1990s, as well. From 1997-2007, Board Member Richard Mole generously endowed an additional annual Student Activist Award, in the memory of Ruth (“Dixie”) Jokinen. The annual award is now a $1,000 cash scholarship, and since 2009 has been endowed by Catherine Fahringer and friends as The Catherine Fahringer Student Memorial Award (see photograph below). Other freethought donors have since periodically contributed additional money to enable FFRF to expand the awards. These donors include the late Alan Snyder, who endowed two years of awards designated for students, and an Oregon couple, who are now endowing the Thomas Jefferson Youth Activist Award of $1,000, among several other individuals. Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF Co-President, endows the annual $1,000 Paul J. Gaylor Memorial Student Activist Award in memory of her father, an early FFRF activist and volunteer. In 2014, FFRF created the Cliff Richards Memorial Student Activist Endowment, after he stipulated the use in his bequest.
Catherine Fahringer, Cliff Richards
Past Recipients
- 2020 – FFRF's Strong Backbone Student Activist Award: Dustin Daniels
- 2019 – Strong Backbone Student Activist Awardee Mary Ferguson
- 2019 – Al Luneman Student Activist Awardee Sydney Kelly
- 2019 – Thomas Jendrock Student Activist Awardee Hannah McDaniel
- 2019 – Thomas Jefferson Student Activist Awardee Zoe Dean
- 2018 – Paul J. Gaylor Memorial Student Activist Awardee Mickey Desruisseaux
- 2018 – Beverly and Richard Herman Student Activist Awardee Bailey Harris
- 2018 – Thomas Jefferson Student Activist Awardee Daniel Roe
- 2018 – Strong Backbone Student Activist Awardee Devin Estes
- 2017 – Paul J. Gaylor Memorial Student Activist Scholarship Awardee Peter Opitz
- 2017 – Cliff Richards Memorial Student Activist Awardee Ashlynn Bradley
- 2017 – Allen P. Wilkinson Student Activist Awardee Seth Manning
- 2017 – Richard & Beverly Hermsen Student Activist Awardee Jack Doe
- 2017 – Richard and Beverly Hermsen Student Activist Awardee Cidney Fisk
- 2017 – FFRF’s Strong Backbone Student Activist Awardee Cierra Fields
- 2017 – Thomas Jefferson Student Activist Awardee Nicole Niebler
- 2017 – Catherine Fahringer Black Skeptic Awardee Elijah Willig
- 2017 – Catherine Fahringer Black Skeptic Awardee Sydney Steward
- 2017 – Catherine Fahringer Black Skeptic Awardee Lydia Mason
- 2017 – Catherine Fahringer Black Skeptic Awardee Dia Brown
- 2017 – FFRF’s 2017 Thomas W. Jendrock Student Activist Kelly Helton
- 2017 – FFRF’s Strong Backbone Student Activist Award: Sitting down for her rights by Cierra Fields
- 2016 – Cliff Richards Student Activist Award: Being an activist in Bangladesh can be deadly - By Muhammad Shohiduzzaman
- 2016 – Strong Backbone Student Activist Award, Removing prayer from graduation: By Sarah Barrios
- 2016 – Lily SanGiovanni - Strong Backbone Student Activist Award
- 2016 – Benjamin Oyakawa - Thomas Jefferson Student Activist Award
- 2015 – Holly Baer - First Yip Harburg Youth Activist Award
- 2015 – Thomas Sheedy - Richard and Beverly Hermsen Student Activist Award
- 2015 – "Doe 4" - Richard and Beverly Hermsen Student Activist Award
- 2015 – "Doe 1" - Richard and Beverly Hermsen Student Activist Award
- 2015 – Morrigan Turner - In Memory of Tony Ross Student Activist Award
- 2015 – Gabriella Ferrell - Allen P. Wilkinson Student Activist Award
- 2015 – Jarvis Idowu - Paul J. Gaylor Memorial Student Scholarship
- 2015 – Ewan McCartney - Mingjin Zhang Student Activist Award
- 2014 – Sam Erickson - Cliff Richards Memorial Student Activist Award
- 2014 – Sophia Winkler - Thomas W. Jendrock Student Activist Award
- 2014 – Amanda Scott - Catherine Fahringer Memorial Student Activist Award
- 2014 – Shelby Conway - Cliff Richards Memorial Student Activist Award
- 2014 – Emarie Wakefield - Cliff Richards Memorial Student Activist Award
- 2014 – Dakota McMillan - Thomas Jefferson Student Activist Award & Cliff Richards Memorial Student Activist Award
- 2014 – Jacob Zupon - Thomas Jefferson Student Activist Award & Strong Backbone Student Activist Award
- 2014 – Joshua Flashman - Cliff Richards Memorial Student Activist Award
- 2014 – Kalei and Ben Wilson - Paul J. Gaylor Memorial Student Activist Award
- 2014 – Kelvin Manjarrez - Black Skeptics Los Angeles Award
- 2014 – Max Nielson - Allen P. Wilkinson Student Activist Awardee
- 2013 – Zack Kopplin - Richard and Beverly Hermsen Student Activist Award
- 2013 – Daniel Koster - Thomas W. Jendrock Student Activist Award
- 2013 – Gage Pulliam – Strong Backbone Student Activist Award
- 2013 – Nicole M. Jacobsen - Paul J. Gaylor Memorial Student Activist Award
- 2013 – Calli Miller – Catherine Fahringer Memorial Student Activist Award
- 2012 – Shawna Scott
- 2012 – Balen & Mayan Essak
- 2012 – Maia Disbrow
- 2012 – Matthew Nielson - Catherine Fahringer Memorial Student Activist Award
- 2012 – Jeff Shott - Paul J. Gaylor Memorial Student Activist
- 2012 – Krystal Myers - Catherine Fahringer Memorial Student Activist Award
- 2012 – Jessica Ahlquist - Thomas Jefferson Youth Activist Award
- 2011 – Jessica Ahlquist, Thomas Jefferson Youth Activist Award
- 2011 – Harrison Hopkins - Catherine Fahringer Youth Activist Award
- 2011 – Sarah McNair
- 2011 – Damon Fowler
- 2011 – Duncan Henderson
- 2011 – Dylan Galos
- 2010 – Eric Workman
- 2010 – Sawyer Frey
- 2008 – Julia Cicci
- 2007 – Webster Cook
- 2007 – Matthew LaClair
- 2007 – Emma Martens
- 2005 – Jennifer Musgrove
- 2004 – Jesse Card
- 2002 – Kenji Ornellas
- 2002 – Darrell Lambert
- 2002 – Blake Trettien
- 2001 – Schiller Hill
- 2000 – Gabriel Carlson
- 2000 – Cassie Gootee
- 1999 – Micah White
- 1998 – Adam Butler
- 1997 – Chris McDougal
- 1996 – Rachel Bauchman