College of Liberal Arts honors students for writing excellence

Departments select top writing by students

RIT’s College of Liberal Arts honored 15 students with the 41st Annual Student Writing Awards.

Rochester Institute of Technology’s College of Liberal Arts honored student achievements in writing with 15 writing awards on Friday, March 19. This year marks the 41st year the awards were presented, though the first time the ceremony was held virtually.

Students studying in seven RIT colleges were honored, including Kate Gleason College of Engineering, College of Art and Design, School of Individualized Study, College of Engineering Technology,  College of Science, Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences, and College of Liberal Arts.

“These awards recognize exceptional student writers in our RIT community each year,” said LaVerne McQuiller Williams, interim dean of RIT’s College of Liberal Arts. “Our faculty works with many talented students across many disciplines, helping them hone this important skill. We are very proud to honor these 15 winners and bring attention to their outstanding written pieces.”

Faculty committees in each department within the College of Liberal Arts selected student awardees from a number of disciplines whose work embodies the ideals and standards of excellence, creative endeavor, and scholarship.

Awards include the Henry and Mary Kearse Writing Award, created in 1980 thanks to a donation from Henry J. Kearse, founder and president of the construction firm H.J. Kearse Inc., and his wife, Mary, a longtime member of RIT’s Nathaniel Rochester Society.

Other awards are named in honor of Stan McKenzie and Mary C. Sullivan, both esteemed former deans of the College of Liberal Arts.

The 2021 Kearse Award recipients are:

Other 2021 award winners are:

  • Carley Visser, a first-year electrical engineering major from Cornelius, N.C., received first prize in the Stan McKenzie Endowed Writing Award for “Spanish-English Dual Language Programs and Identity Formation.”
  • Tiana Daye, a first-year human-centered computing major from Dix Hills, N.Y., received second prize in the Stan McKenzie Endowed Writing Award for “The Unscrutinized Division.”
  • Frank Abbey, a fifth-year computer science major from Fairport, N.Y., won the Mary C. Sullivan Women & Gender Studies Writing Award for “What Bloodchild Asks of Us.”

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