Lincoln statue in the spring
All Stories

We are pleased to announce that a number of Intellectual Foundations scholarships —individual awards up to $2,500— will be awarded for the 2022-23 academic year.

Any student who was enrolled in an Intellectual Foundations course during spring 2021 or fall 2021 may enter by submitting an assigned essay written in the course.

Submissions are due Monday, March 14.

This competition is being presented in cooperation with Nick Mulvey, vice president for enrollment, and Paul Ulrich, director of Intellectual Foundations.

Competition guidelines

To apply, you must make two electronic submissions. One submission includes your chosen Intellectual Foundations paper (excluding any identifying factors, such as name or Carthage ID number) and the abstract (described below). The second submission is your cover sheet (follow the instructions below regarding what information to include).

Both documents should be submitted separately to honors@carthage.edu with “I.F. Scholarship Entry” in the subject box for the paper and abstract and “I.F. Scholarship Cover Sheet and your name” in the subject box for the cover sheet.

Instructions *
  • Select your very best Intellectual Foundations essay. (Each student may submit only one paper.) Papers submitted for a previous year’s Intellectual Foundations Scholarship Competition (whether they won or not) may not be resubmitted.
  • Prepare a clean copy of your manuscript. Neither your name nor any instructor’s comments may appear anywhere on your work (except the cover sheet). All work must be typed and legible.
  • After selecting your best work, write an abstract of no more than 200 words responding to the following questions, focusing on the paper you are submitting:
    • How and why did you write this particular piece?
    • How and why was it inspired or provoked by a text, idea, or conversation you encountered in Intellectual Foundations?
    • What did you learn about the course material, about writing, and/or about yourself through the process of writing this work?
  • Prepare a cover sheet to be submitted separately from your paper and abstract which clearly provides:
    • Your full name
    • Your Carthage student ID number
    • Your class rank for 2022-2023 school year (SO/JR/SR)
    • Your email address and an alternative way to contact you (cell phone, etc.)
    • The course title, number, and professor whose Intellectual Foundations class this paper was submitted in
    • The subject of the separate email submission should be: I.F. Scholarship Cover Sheet and your name

* Hard copies of these instructions can be found on bulletin boards in Lentz Hall.

Selection process

All submissions following the above guidelines will be carefully read by faculty panels. Submissions will be evaluated by how clearly and convincingly the author has made a judgment about some aspect of the course material, as well as for how carefully that judgment has been supported by illustrations and analysis. (Narrative should engage the reader through accomplished use of significant detail.) Whatever the form — clear, sincere, orderly writing will be valued. Each faculty panel will designate papers as finalists.

Finalists

After all submissions have been evaluated, we will notify the finalists by Wednesday, March 30 and schedule a 10-15 minute interview (conversation) with them and a Carthage professor or administrator. We expect these interviews to take place the week of April 6-13. The selected finalists will create a poster about their submission to present at the Celebration of Scholars. Information about preparing a poster and faculty contact persons will be shared following the interview. Papers and interview results will be combined to determine the scholarship recipients.

The Celebration of Scholars poster presentations will take place from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 7, in the Tarble Athletic and Recreation Center. We will invite all finalists to attend the Celebration of Scholars Student Awards Ceremony at 3:30 p.m., in the Todd Wehr Center Jockey Rooms. We hope that all competitors will attend the ceremony.

Sponsoring Department, Office, or Organization:

All College Programs, Intellectual Foundations

For more information, contact:

Paul Ulrich: pulrich@carthage.edu, Lentz Hall 320

Sue Grover: sgrover@carthage.edu, Lentz Hall 316