Essay Contest for Young Women and Men of North America.

Originality of thought, clarity and quality of presentation, quantity of research evidence, and future promise or potential shown by the author are among the criteria used to judge essays entered in contests geared toward helping students advance in their studies. The Humanist Essay Contest for Young Women and Men of North America is just such a contest. Yet, among the 2001 entries and this year's winners, a significant number of the essays also met the standard criterion of magazine editors: that a given submission "meet the current editorial needs" of the publication. As a result, over half of this issue of the Humanist (representing nearly two-thirds of its authors) is devoted to publishing the writings of women and men under age twenty-five. We were impressed by the usefulness and informative nature of many of the essays and wanted our readers to share in the bounty. We were also impressed by the overall quality of those essays that were neither published nor granted prizes. In what these young people have shared with us, there is much ground for optimism about the future. So we extend our sincere thanks to all those who entered, to the educators and others who inspired the entrants, and those judges who evaluated the essays. We also invite interested parties to become cosponsors of the contest.

The 2002 Humanist Essay Contest is now underway and accepting submissions until December 1, 2002. For complete information, visit our website at www.theHumanist.org; phone toll-free 800-837-3792; or send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the Humanist Essay Contest, 1777 T Street NW, Washington, DC 20009-7125.

AGES EIGHTEEN TO TWENTY-FOUR

$1,000 FIRST PRIZE:

"Finding Freedom" by Shahada Liberty Reardon age twenty-three

$400 SECOND PRIZE:

"When Foreign Intervention Is Justified: Women Under the Taliban" by Rose V. Lindgren age ninteen

$100 THIRD PRIZE:

"Virtual Democracy and the Prison-Industrial Complex" by Melissa Barthelemy age twenty-three

$50 EDUCATOR PRIZE:

Patrick McDaid (Media, Pennsylvania)

HONORABLE MENTION:

"The United Nations and the Ivory Coast" by Soumahila Cisse, age twenty-three; "Dear Mom" by Trevor Dallier, age eighteen; "An End to Postculturalism, the Reinvention of Hope" by Annabel Gill age nineteen; "Humanizing the Enemy: Empowering a Nation Through Nonviolence" by Carly Heath, age twenty; "The Demise of Human Rights in the Wake of Globalization" by Nakia Matthias, age twenty-three; "Death with Dignity: The Ultimate Human Right?" by Andrea E. Richardson age twenty-three; "The Last Right" by Robby Lee Robinette, age nineteen

AGES THIRTEEN TO SEVENTEEN

$1,000 FIRST PRIZE:

"Born to Die: The Tragedy of Being Born the `Wrong' Gender" by Shanam Saini age seventeen

$400 SECOND PRIZE:

"The Moral Code and the Trials That Test Our Adherence to It" by Daniel Elkind age seventeen

$100 THIRD PRIZE:

"The Dangers of Beef" by Zara R. John age sixteen

$50 EDUCATOR PRIZE:

John Miller, Watershed High School (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

HONORABLE MENTION:

"The Aim of Humankind" by Ian Matthew Collins, age seventeen; "Weapon of Choice" by Yafang Deng, age seventeen; "200,000 Times" by Doris Huang, age seventeen; "Does the United States Have the Right to Try and Spread Its Values and Culture to Other Societies?" by David Jeffrey, age seventeen; "Paper or Plastic" by Sam Lien, age sixteen; "The Difficulties of Tolerance: Acknowledging Multiple Paths" by Joanna Miles, age seventeen; "Child Soldiers" by Sarah Rose Miller, age fifteen; "Deconstructing Gender, Sex, and Sexuality As Applied to Identity" by Whitney Mitchell age seventeen

JUDGES

Byron Demmer, Valerie Demmer, Fred Edwords, Karen Ann Gajewski