Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Six Mississippi State students recently received special awards for their participation in the university’s 2017-18 Maroon Edition essay contest.

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

Essay subjects come from Maroon Edition, the annual common reading program for incoming MSU freshmen. Upperclassmen and graduate students, along with faculty and staff members, also are encouraged to join in reading the selected book and participating in related activities.

New York Times best-selling author Wes Moore’s “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates” was both the reading selection and essay contest topic for the competition. Moore delivered the keynote address at Mississippi State’s 2017 Fall Convocation.

First-place winners read their essays at a celebratory luncheon at Mitchell Memorial Library.

Maroon and Write Co-Director Deborah Lee said all of this year’s winning essays will be archived and available for viewing in the MSU Libraries’ Institutional Repository.

Freshman winners include:

FIRST—Nathaniel D. Roesener, an architecture major from Decatur, Alabama.

SECOND—Taelyr E. Harris of Hattiesburg, now a sophomore undeclared major concentrating in veterinary medical technology.

THIRD—Reily D. Tribble, a business administration major from D’Iberville.

Upperclassman winners include:

FIRST—Madeline E. Crow, a junior industrial engineering major from Kingsport, Tennessee.

SECOND—Haley N. Sandlin, a junior medical technology major from Baldwyn.

THIRD—Hunter B. Scoggins, a junior medical technology major from Pope.

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

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