The three winners of the contest, endowed by the late Philip L. Carret, were celebrated at a March 28 banquet.
Elon students Naomi Perry ’19, Caroline Redd ’19 and Natalia Conte ’19 have been selected as winners of the 19th annual Philip L. Carret Endowment Thomas Jefferson Essay Contest.
The students who participated in this year’s competition responded to the following prompt in their essays:
Counterdemonstrators organized in response, confrontations between the two groups became violent – indeed deadly – and the President of the United States failed to condemn what members of his own party called domestic terrorism.
Local Charlottesville activist, Tanesha Hudson, invoked Jefferson when lambasting Trump: “You okayed this activity,” she said in response to the President’s comments. “This is the face of supremacy. This is what we deal with every day, being African-American. And this has always been the reality of Charlottesville. You can’t stand in one corner in this city and not look at the Master sitting on top of Monticello. He looks down on us. He’s been looking down on this city for God knows how long. This is Charlottesville.”
Discuss Hudson’s statement by supporting a clear argument in response to the following: How would Thomas Jefferson situate himself and his beliefs in relationship to the two groups of demonstrators and their values? Would he align himself more with one group than the other? Why? And how?
Responses could look at monuments, Jefferson’s writings and/or Charlottesville history.
The 2018 winners, who were honored at a banquet held March 28 in the Isabella Cannon Room in the Center for the Arts, are:
First Place Winner: Naomi Perry
Essay Title: “The Wolf by the Ear: The Jeffersonian Solution to Conflict in Charlottesville”
Perry won the $1,000 prize and an all-expenses-paid trip to Thomas Jefferson’s home in Monticello, Virginia.
Second Place Winner: Caroline Redd
Essay Title: “Thomas Jefferson: A Contradiction of Beliefs”
Redd received the $500 second place award.
Third Place Winner: Natalia Conte
Paper Title: “Hemings, Hypocrisy, and the Continued Whitewashing of American Politics”
Conte received the $100 third place award.
In addition, the three winners will present their ideas at the Carret-themed session on Student Undergraduate Research Forum (SURF) Day on April 25.
The Philip L. Carret Thomas Jefferson Essay Competition is an endowed essay contest created in 1997 when Carret, a longtime New York investor, fell in love with Elon University after a visit to campus the previous year. Carret promoted the contest to have students reflect on the ideals and principles embodied in Thomas Jefferson’s life and career.