Announcing the Sixth Annual

Liberal Arts Essay Scholarship Competition

Sponsored by the University of Wisconsin
System Advisory Group on the Liberal Arts (SAGLA)

$500 and $2,000 Scholarships Available

Submission Deadline: January 14, 2011

The UW-Green Bay Office of the Provost is pleased to announce this year’s undergraduate liberal arts essay competition. This undergraduate essay competition aims to promote understanding of the purpose and value of a liberal arts and science education. We invite eligible students from across campus to submit essays for the competition.

This Year’s Topic:

Liberal education can be a means to personal fulfillment as well as a pathway to a functioning democracy. Perhaps less evident: a liberal education is also highly practical. In an economy in which most people will change jobs a number of times over their lifetime, the person with a solid liberal education is often the most employable. The basic learning outcomes that are the bedrock of liberal education are all essential tools in the 21st century workplace. (See http://www.aacu.org/leap/vision.cfm for a description of these learning outcomes.)

Reflect on your own work experience; or interview someone else about his or her work experience. How have the habits of mind and the skills of a liberal education been relevant or advantageous to the challenges posed by the workplace?

Write an essay that makes a convincing case for the practical economic value of liberal education by creating a narrative about a specific workplace. Be sure to carefully illustrate the connections between success at work and a strong liberal education.

Awards: Each student selected as a finalist in the UW-Green Bay competition will receive a $500.00 scholarship to cover educational expenses at UW-Green Bay in 2011-2012. Finalists’ essays will then be entered into a pool of essays from across the University of Wisconsin System for the next level of competition. Three awards for $2,000 each are available (one to a student from the UW Colleges and two to students from the UW comprehensive and doctoral institutions).

Eligibility: This competition is open to any UW-Green Bay undergraduate student in academic good standing who has completed a minimum of 30 credit hours by the end of the fall semester 2010, and who plans to enroll for at least one semester during the 2011-2012 academic year.

Submission: All submissions are to be original essays, 1,000-1,250 words in length, typed, double-spaced. Each essay must include a title page with the following information: title of essay, student’s name, major, institution, college and home address, e-mail address, telephone number, and the following statement: “I hereby affirm that this is an original essay and my own work.”

Submissions must be made electronically to the Provost’s Office c/o Timothy Sewall at sewallt@uwgb.edu all essays must be attached as a Microsoft Word document.

Deadline for submission of essays is January 14, 2011.