2021 David McCullough Essay Prizes Winners

2021 David McCullough Essay Prizes Winners

2021 Winners

More than seventy rising 11th and 12th grade students in our National Academy of American History and Civics submitted essays. These entries were reviewed by a panel of our master teachers, with twenty-three finalists then reviewed by a jury of historians.

A Third Prize with special jury distinction was awarded to Riya Ranjan.

Place Name Essay Title School  State
1st Liliana Hug “The Silent Spring That Sparked a Thunderous Uproar: How Rachel Carson’s Scientific Communication Ignited the American Environmental Movement” Salamander Meadows Homeschool PA
2nd Daksha Pillai United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind: Dual Legacies of a Forgotten Supreme Court Case” Paul Laurence Dunbar High School KY
3rd Riya Ranjan “‘The Woman Identified Woman’: Intersectional Liberation” Monta Vista High School  CA
3rd Alexis Cornett “The ‘Proper Timidity and Delicacy’ of Women: How Bradwell v. Illinois Reflected the Ingrained Sexism of 19th-Century America” Milford High School MI
3rd Sophie Gala “‘An Urgent Appeal’: Communication in W. E. B. Du Bois’ Work as Crisis Editor” J. R. Masterman Senior High School  PA
3rd Marisa Hirschfield “A United Construction: Whiteness in The Birth of a Nation and The Jazz Singer The Fieldston School  NY
3rd Victoria Li “‘This is a White Man’s Country’: Challenging and Communicating White Supremacy in 1898 Wilmington, North Carolina” Hunter College High School NY
3rd Mingyan Liu “Driving through the Finish Line: The Fight for Suffrage on Wheels” Manhasset Secondary School NY
3rd Harry Murphy “The Consciousness of the Corporation: Assessing the Origins of an ‘Ethical Consciousness’ Among American Corporations in the 20th Century” St. Andrew’s School DE
3rd Gregory Perryman “DuBois’s Talented Tenth and Garvey’s Back to Africa Movement Converge in Liberia” Beachwood High School OH
3rd Aysu Türkay “US Occupation in the Philippines: The Disconnect between Colonizer and Colonized, and a Different Type of Resistance” Sewickley Academy PA
3rd Emerson Utgaard “‘Founding Contradictions’: Reflecting on American Values through Plyler v. Doe Patrick Henry High School CA