Three students won prizes in Elon’s 9th annual Philip Carret Endowment Thomas Jefferson Essay Contest. Winners were announced at a April 20 banquet. First place went to senior Ian Henderson.
Fifteen students entered this year’s competition, writing on the following topic: “From the beginning of the American experiment, Thomas Jefferson insisted upon the freedom of the press, confiding in 1786 to John Jay that “Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press.” This same advocate of an unfettered press later took an apparently contradictory view of American newspapers. He went so far as to label them “chimnies to carry off noxious vapors and smokes” and, in 1804, even suggested that state governments might claim an exclusive “right to controul the freedom of the press.” What, exactly, did Jefferson mean by “the press”? And what role did he believe that the press should serve in a free and republican nation? What role did it play in Jefferson’s own political experience?
| Winner of the first place prize was senior political science and journalism major Ian Henderson, whose essay was titled “Thomas Jefferson’s Vision for a Fair and Educative Press.” He received a $1,000 prize and will be invited to tour Thomas Jefferson’s home at Monticello and stay overnight at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies, courtesy of Dr. Daniel P. Jordan, President of The Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Henderson is from Fallston, Md., and is the son of John and Wilma Henderson. |  |
| The second place prize, which includes a $600 cash award, went to sophomore Jessica Keough, whose essay was titled “Thomas Jefferson: Public Advocate and Private Prosecutor of the Freedom of the Press.” Keough is a history major from Cumberland, R.I., and is the daughter of Kevin and Laurie Keough. |  |
| The third place prize, which includes a $400 cash award, went to senior Zachary Lauritzen, an international studies major from La Grande, Ore. His essay was titled “Jefferson’s Consistency.” Lauritzen is the son of Dale and Carol Lauritzen. |  |
Other students who participated in this year’s competition included Julie Marie Dove, Nicole Marie Duncan, Spencer Ryan Howard, Jessica Ashley Kemp, Stephen Gregg Lavoie, Ann Marie Leonard, Kristy Ann Mills, Anne Elizabeth Pannell, Hayley Elizabeth Schools, Mary Katherine Taylor, Donna Marie Webber and Samantha Helen Widmer.
The essays were judged by faculty members Clyde Ellis, Michael Carignan, David Copeland, Charles Irons and Harlan Makemson.