Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Students from Mississippi, Alabama, Michigan and Tennessee are 2016 winners of Mississippi State’s Maroon Edition Essay Contest.

The competition is sponsored each year by Maroon & Write, the university’s quality enhancement program to boost student writing skills. First-place winners receive $500; second- and third-place, $300 and $100, respectively.

Essay subjects come from Maroon Edition, the annual common reading experience for incoming MSU freshmen. Sophomores, juniors, seniors and graduate students, along with faculty and staff members, also are encouraged to join in reading the selected book.

“Same Kind of Different as Me” by Ron Hall and Denver Moore was both this year’s reading selection and essay contest topic.

Freshman winners included:

—First, Emma D. Wheeler of Huntsville, Alabama, currently studying in liberal arts.

—Second, Kallie N. Maddox of Southaven, also in liberal arts.

—Third, Emily K. Wright of Tupelo, a communication/journalism major.

Upperclassman winners included:

—First, junior Noah F. Van Hartesveldt, a geoscience/professional geology major from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

—Second, junior Anika H. Eidson, an animal and dairy science major from White House, Tennessee.

—Third, junior Courtney S. Peagler, a marketing major from Brandon.

For more about Maroon & Write, visit www.qep.msstate.edu; Maroon Edition, www.maroonedition.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.