College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Liberal Arts Matters

Kristi Schultz Broughton Liberal Arts Essay Contest, 2012-2013

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences invites you to participate in our annual liberal education essay contest during the academic year 2012-2013. The contest is open to all Butler University undergraduate students, and the student who writes the winning essay will win a $1000 prize. Past essay contest winners are not permitted to enter the contest.  The winning essay will be posted on the Liberal Arts and Sciences website and its author will be honored at Awards Day on April 6, 2013.

The submitted essays will be judged by a committee of Butler University faculty drawn from various disciplines, and members of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Board of Visitors. 

The prompt for this year's essay is:

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.

Contest Requirements:

Limit yourself to 1000 words and submit your essay as an attachment by January 31, 2013 to lasoffice@butler.edu.  The format of your paper should conform to the following standards:

  • Single spaced
  • One inch margins
  • Twelve point font
  • Conventional book-print fonts, such as Times, New Times Roman, Lucinda Bright, etc. No novelty fonts.
  • Title your attachment Lastname_FirstNameLAScontest.doc.
  • Make sure that your e-mail includes contact information (name, address, phone number, email address). Do not include your name or contact information within the file, as these essays will be blind-reviewed.

Your submission will almost certainly be richer if you avail yourself of the resources and commentaries posted at the Liberal Arts Matters web site. You are not expected necessarily to agree with these commentaries or to quote from them, but reading them will certainly help deepen and vary your thinking about the topic. Please note that by submitting an entry, you are giving us permission to post your essay on the Liberal Arts and Sciences web site.