UCA’s Learning Communities and the Department of Writing hosted the 4th annual AfterWords, a first-year writing competition on Nov. 21.
The event was held in the Fireplace Room of McCastlain Hall. Thirty-three students read at this year’s AfterWords with guidance from Residential College writing faculty Tami Phillips, Cokey Allen, Tammy Scaife, Lisa Mongno, Shelle Stormoe, Sophie Bradford, Edwina Smith and Lanette Grate. Over 300 students and many families attended throughout the day.
The history of AfterWords is one of collaborative creation across academic programs. According to the AfterWords webpage: “In 2007, a small group of Writing Department faculty teaching in UCA’s Residential Colleges envisioned a writing competition with a difference: exclusively for freshmen by freshmen. The faculty felt a first-year writing competition could provide a real incentive and reward for good student writing by offering students the opportunity to share their writing with students from other classes, to learn from each other, and have their hard work publicly recognized and praised by peers and faculty. For the first time, first-year student writers could have a real audience. Further, the competition would provide model essays that can be analyzed, critiqued, and, when appropriate, emulated by other student writers. What is more, the Residential College writing faculty believed the competition would be a fascinating and diverse avenue for the UCA First-Year Community to wander down: a bazaar of topics, a marketplace of ideas, a store of discussion.”
UCA’s Learning Communities is excited to support and further such fine faculty ideas in the Residential/Commuter Colleges.
After a faculty reading presented by Greg Graham, Scott Payne, chair of Writing, and Carey Smitherman, director of First-Year Writing, presented the following student awards:
1st prize ($100): Andrea Eades from Short/Denney Residential College, Diving into the Ocean; Sophie Bradford, writing instructor
2nd prize ($75): Alexis Hendricks from Hughes Residential College, Strike Out; Tammy Scaife, writing instructor
3rd prize ($50): Justin Merkel from STEM Residential College, Racial Segregation in the UCA Greek System; Lanette Grate, writing instructor
Honorable Mentions ($25 each):
EDGE Residential College: Brittney Behr, A Free Spirit; Edwina Smith, writing instructor
STEM Residential College: Steven Bryce Wroten, Tainted Memories; Shelle Stormoe, writing instructor
Hughes Residential College: Ross Wheeler, The Learning Circle; Shelle Stormoe, writing instructor
Short/Denney Residential College: Caitlin Dewey, The Birds, the Bees, and Their Parents; Sophie Bradford, writing instructor
Minton Commuter College: Vera Bowie, My Miracle; Tammy Scaife, writing instructor
Best Reader Prize ($25): Brittney Behr, A Free Spirit; Edwina Smith, writing instructor
The 2011 AfterWords Committee included Dr. Carey Smitherman, director of First-Year Writing, writing faculty Lisa Mongno & Sophie Bradford, and Dr. Jayme Millsap Stone, director of Learning Communities.