CRE Community of Voices Essay

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.

While the Common Read is a text provided to incoming freshmen, we encourage participation from all UM undergraduate students. Each year, the prompt is inspired by the text. However, your essay should not be about the text. Therefore, even students who have not read the text are able to participate.

Essay rules

• 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 a $400 scholarship, awarded through the student’s bursar account.
• Entries must be submitted through the online portal.
• The deadline to submit is December 31, 2024, with the winners and finalists announced in March 2025.
• Note that there isn’t a length requirement. As the writer, you would decide how long the essay needs to be to effectively answer the prompt.

Fall 2024 Prompt

In Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier, Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey offer detailed advice concerning how individuals may improve personal happiness. This advice ranges from managing emotions and relationships to careers and faith. They conclude the book by arguing that “teaching happiness is also the best strategy for getting happier as time goes on” (201).

The topic of happiness is an important one in the UM community. The function of the University is built on the well-being of every member of the University, including the students who attend. However, college students aren’t immune to the “happiness slump” (xxiv) experienced in modern society. Loneliness, anxiety, and sadness are prevalent among college students who face fears of usefulness and confidence as they begin to discover the place they want to occupy in the world. Could “teaching happiness” help?

For this year’s Community of Voices essay contest, we are interested in learning how you “teach” happiness and what that means to you. What issues do you and your peers face concerning mental health and happiness, and how do you work to address these issues? What does it mean to “teach” happiness, and how do you do that work in your own life? As a student at UM, what opportunities do you have to “teach” happiness? Here you may consider both the value of self-help, where you learn ways to improve your well-being, and the value of acts of service or moral deeds, where you focus on the happiness of others. Consider these questions and build an experience-driven argument that makes a case for how students of UM may work to “teach” happiness, both to themselves and to others.