Trine Writing Center announces contest winners

By Lauren Banks
Communication ’24

On April 20, students, faculty and community members gathered in Wells Theater on the Trine University campus to celebrate the winning entries of the Hear My Voice contest.

Hear My Voice is an annual, campus-wide writing competition organized by the Amy Salyer-Nicholls Writing Center. The contest was originally named after Walter Cunningham, a Tri-State alumnus and primary sponsor of the competition. Last year, a contest was held among the Trine student body to change the name, and Hear My Voice was the winning title.

This year, there were 44 submissions, with representation from every academic school. Students could enter under four categories: academic writing, poetry, creative nonfiction and fiction. Each category was judged by a faculty member from the Department of Humanities and Communication.

The top six entries from each category were anonymously sent out to the student body to vote on the Student Choice Award.

Rex Chapman-Shadik, a criminal justice major from Lakeport, California, took first place in the academic writing category with “Restorative Justice for Abused Juvenile Offenders.” Blake Williams, an English major from Elkhart, Indiana, placed second with “Three Figures: An Analysis of Neuromancer, the Body, and Cyberspace.”

Ava McCall’s “Speculative Biology in Popular Culture and Educating a New Generation” placed third. McCall is a biology/pre-physician assistant major from Noblesville, Indiana. Matthew Billings, an English major from Churubusco, Indiana, received the Student Choice Award for “How Does the Past Affect the Present?”

In the poetry category, Upasana Shrestha, a biomedical engineering major from Nepal, placed first with “growing up.” Mara Foutz’s “In the End” took second. Foutz is a forensic science major from St. Louis, Missouri.

Blake Williams placed third with “Violence.” Andrea Davenport, an English education major from Downers Grove, Illinois, received both the Honorable Mention and Student Choice Award for “Mirror.”

Isabel Newcom’s “The War on Dorothy Wilson” placed first in the creative nonfiction category and will be published in Belt Magazine later this spring. Newcom is an English major from Logansport, Indiana.

Alex Fosnaugh, an English major from Huntertown, Indiana, received both second place and the Student Choice Award for “Lasagna.” Blake Williams’s “T-15 Crashes: A Disastrous History of Aviation Safety” took third. Lauren Banks, a communication major from Angola, Indiana, received an Honorable Mention for “Fighting Secession from Little Steuben.”

Muriel Mackie’s “The Prophet of Lindsay Middle” placed first in the fiction category. Mackie is a marketing major from Hillsdale, Michigan.

Darren Lloyd, a communication major from Carmel, Indiana, placed second with “Wolf Birds.” Both third place and the Student Choice Award went to Travis Mersing, a chemical engineering major from Swanton, Ohio, for “The Great Traveler.”

Winners were gifted a printed copy containing the winning entries and will have their names inscribed on a plaque displayed in Taylor Hall. Cash prizes were also awarded: $100 for first place, $50 for second place, $25 for third place, $15 for honorable mentions and $10 for Student Choice Award.

This year’s winning entries, as well as an archive of previous years’ winners, can be viewed on the Writing Center webpage.