Kristi Schultz Broughton Liberal Arts Essay Contest
Overview
The Kristi Schultz Broughton Liberal Arts Essay Contest is an
annual competition which encourages Butler undergraduates from all
colleges to write a short essay in response to a prompt about
the value of the liberal arts education they are experiencing at
Butler. The author of the winning essay receives a $1000 prize.
The essay contest is named in honor of Kristi Schultz
Broughton. Although not a Butler grad, Kristi was an avid
supporter of Butler. Kristi was an elementary school teacher
and a Butler Mom whose life exemplified the values of liberal
education and a commitment to teaching and learning. The
contest is made possible through the generous gift of Kristi's
sister Karen Schultz Alter '85 and brother Steven R. Schultz
'88.
2013 topic -
Primed to Serve, a Benefit of a Liberal Arts Education
In Professor Marshall Gregory's forthcoming book, Good Teaching
and Educational Vision: Not the Same Thing as Disciplinary
Expertise, he writes of the importance of "[making] some kind
of positive contribution to the world: to do something to make the
world more sensible or more peaceful or more civil or more
intelligent, and more congenial to human flourishing." Write an
essay that analyzes how your liberal arts experiences (in your core
and major classes, your community requirements, your service work,
or other experiences) have inspired or prepared you to make similar
sorts of positive contributions to rationality, peace, civility,
intelligence, or human growth.
Winning essay, "Bologna and Blogs: A Student's Journey
Towards Actualizing The Purpose of His Higher Education," by
Andrew Erlandson.
2012 topic -
Mediating the Disconnect: Liberal Arts as Inspiration for
Activism
Virtually all news and media outlets frequently and urgently remind
us that we are at a historic crossroads and that local and global
societies and economies are facing extraordinary if not totally
unprecedented challenges. Yet many of us tend to feel disconnected
from these challenges, watching them as if they were a show that we
are free to observe or ignore or as a set of problems others are
responsible for solving, preferably without our involvement.
In what ways has your experience at Butler moved you to and
prepared you for a higher level of engagement with or response to
these challenges? How has your liberal arts education encouraged or
supported this change?
Winning essay, "Mediating Disconnected Communities with a
Liberal Arts Education," by Jennifer Redmond.
2011
topic - Education as Commodity: Liberal Arts Education
in the Consumer Age
Contemporary higher education is increasingly dominated by the
realities and metaphors of the market economy. Education is
an investment or a product. Students are consumers.
Admissions counselors are salespeople and professors deliver their
customers goods and services. Write an essay about this
mindset and how it has affected your education. Have your
attitudes towards the commoditization of education changed during
your time at Butler? Fundamentally, how can or should liberal
arts education fit within this worldview?
Winning essay, "Metaphors of the Market Economy and The
Learning Community," by Ben Sippola.
2010
topic - "The Importance of the Liberal Arts in a
Digital Age"
... . The immediacy and ease of publication is fraught with
pitfalls and potential issues that provide new challenges for the
next generation of readers, writers, and thinkers. Consider the
place of your liberal arts education in this mix and write an essay
in which you analyze how that education has better prepared you as
a consumer of, contributor to, and critic of the texts that flow
from new media outlets.
Winning essay, "Mastering
the Digital Age: How the Liberal Arts Can Turn Technology into
Progress," by Caleb Hamman.
2009
topic - Imagine that you had an hour to spend with
President-elect Obama and your task was to make sure he understood
the nature and value of a liberal arts education. What would you
say to him?
Two Winning essays!, "Learning the Art of Creation," by
Farhad Anwarzai, and "Dear President Obama: The Importance of
the Liberal Arts in Our Changeable World," by Michelle
Skinner.
2008
topic - The Reach for Coherence: The Value of
Complementarity Among the Sciences and Humanities in Your Liberal
Education
Winning essay, "The Liberal Arts as a Way of Being
Humane," by Mike Meginnis.
2007
topic - What is the value of a liberal arts education
in the 21st century?
Winning essay, "The Glory of County Roads," by Betsy
Shirley