The Freedom From Religion Foundation is proud to announce the 15 winners of the 2018 David Hudak Memorial Students of Color Essay Competition for College Students.
College students of color were asked to write a personal persuasive essay about the “Challenges of being a student of color who rejects religion.”
Winners are listed below and include the award amount and the college or university they will be attending. FFRF has paid out a total of $10,550 in award money for this contest this year. FFRF thanks Dean and Dorea Schramm of Florida for providing a $100 bonus to students who are members of a secular student club or the Secular Student Alliance. The total reflects those bonuses.
First place
MiKaelah Freeman, New York University ($3,000)
Second place
Michael Brown, Dartmouth College ($2,000)
Third place
Noemi Rosario, University at Albany (SUNY) ($1,000)
Fourth place
Johann Rucker, University of Nevada-Las Vegas ($750)
Fifth place
Alondra Vega Rivera, Escuela de Artes Plasticas y Diseno de Puerto Rico ($600)
Sixth place
Azarius Williams, Syracuse University ($500)
Seventh place
Jesica Maldonado Matias, San Francisco State University ($400)
Honorable mentions ($200 each)
Joseph Florida, Southern University A&M College
Anissa Foster, Stanford University
Kelvin Martinez Gomez, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Alexandra Harmon, Howard University
Shejan Heaven, University of Georgia
Evan Malcolm, University of South Florida
Tatem Rios, Inver Hills Community College
Therrin Wilson, University of

Tennessee
FFRF has offered essay competitions to college students since 1979. This is FFRF’s third annual student of color contest. Its other three essay contests are open to students of all backgrounds.
The general college student essay winners will be announced in the October issue and the grad student essay winners will be announced in the November issue.