Michelle Lekas Undergraduate Essay Prize in Critical Thinking

The deadline has been extended through midnight Thursday, April 9th.

The annual Michelle Lekas Undergraduate Essay Prize in Critical Thinking is open to any undergraduate student who took a CSCL or SCMC course in the last year (i.e., anytime since the last contest). You do not have to be a CSCL/SCMC major to participate.

Winners are awarded these prizes: 1st prize = $150, 2nd prize = $100, and 3rd prize = $75.

Prize recipients will be honored at a ceremony during the end-of-year Undergraduate Symposium on Friday, April 24, 2026.

Eligibility 

1. Authors must be undergraduate students who enrolled in CSCL or SCMC courses in Summer 2025, Fall 2025, or Spring 2026 (essays written in Spring 2025 are eligible if they were completed and submitted after April 18, 2025). 
2. Submitted essays must be original work (or be based on original work) written to fulfill an assignment for a CSCL or SCMC course, including independent studies, directed readings, etc.
3. Essays must be works of critical prose, focused on analyzing and interpreting one or more literary, theoretical/philosophical, musical/sonic, moving-image, and/or other types of objects.
4. Only one entry per student is eligible for submission. 

Submission Guidelines 

1. Prepare a cover sheet with your name, email address, and information about the course for which the essay was written (including course number, title, semester, and instructor name).
2. The essay should be no shorter than 8 pages and no longer than 15 pages. It must be double-spaced, paginated, as well as formatted with 1-inch margins, size 12 print, and standard font such as Times New Roman.  (Please submit a clean copy of the essay, e.g., without the instructor’s comments).
3. Any citation style is acceptable as long as it is consistently used throughout the essay.
4. If applicable, attach the assignment that the essay was written to fulfill. If it was not written for a specific assignment, please briefly include some context (e.g., a few sentences at the beginning of the essay) regarding how you formulated your topic in consultation with your instructor. 
5. Please attach your cover sheet, essay, and (if applicable) assignment, and send them to [email protected], with the subject line: “Undergraduate Essay Prize 2026.” 

The competition deadline is 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, April 9th, 2026. All essays will be evaluated by a panel of judges consisting of instructors in SCMC and CSCL, including Director of Undergraduate Studies Christian Uwe.

If you have any questions, please, get in touch with Christian Uwe ([email protected]). We look forward very much to reading your work!