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CRE Community of Voices Essay

An Essay Challenge Connecting Diverse Ideas, Experiences, Disciplines, and People

The Creed characterizes the University of Mississippi as “a community of learning dedicated to nurturing excellence in intellectual inquiry and personal character in an open and diverse environment.” As part of that mission, the UM Common Reading Experience helps students develop a sense of community among diverse peers, neighbors, and instructors, while making connections across varied ideas, experiences, and disciplines. The CRE Diverse Voices Essay Challenge provides an opportunity for students to further engage with that mission by examining issues related to the common book. Below are some of the essay details and the web address for additional information and submission:

     ●The annual challenge is open to all UM undergraduate students.
     ●One winner and two finalists will be chosen by a panel of judges.
     ●The winner will receive $400.
     ●Entries must be submitted through the online submission portal.
     ●The deadline to submit is Dec. 31, 2023, with the winners and finalists announced in early 2024.

Fall 2023 Prompt

In Dave Isay’s 2016 book Callings, he presents the stories of people describing the career paths they chose to pursue, their inspirations for choosing those paths, and the connections to their communities created through their work. The book is part of the StoryCorps project, whose mission is to “preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world.” Our UM community is also built from these connections shared among students who are pursuing their callings, and like the people in Isay’s book, the diversity of those stories creates a vibrant portrait of our students’ lived experiences. For this year’s Community of Voices essay contest, we want to hear your stories. What calling are you pursuing? What inspired you to follow that path? What challenges have you faced along the way, and how have you worked to overcome those challenges? Why is your calling important, and how do you plan to use it to connect to your community both now and in your future? Consider these questions and write a personal narrative that tells the story of your own calling.

While the Common Read is a text provided to incoming freshmen, we encourage participation from all UM undergraduate students. The following links lead to the some of the recorded interviews that are included in Callings. Each recording is around two minutes. Students who don’t have access to the book might consider listening to some of these stories on the StoryCorps site for inspiration. Note, though, that the recordings are interviews and not essays. Use them for inspiration to think about your own story, but present your work as a narrative essay for the contest.

2023 Recipients

Winner: Sirena Pridgen
Finalists: Paige Giarrusso & Jacob Lane Whitehead

Past Recipients

Cayleigh Garrard (2022)