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Deadline Approaches For Scholarship Contest Submissions

Oct. 13, 2014
SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt

 

In the Ernest Cline novel “Ready Player One,” Wade Watts hunts for James Halliday’s elusive keys in the year 2044 using his knowledge of 80s culture in order to win Halliday’s fortune.

Back in 2014, various Sam Houston State University departments are offering the students the opportunity to use their knowledge of “Ready Player One” to win more than $2,000 in scholarships.

Through the Bearkats Read to Succeed program, which adopted the book for this year’s common reader, students can compete in six different contests that ask students to find inspiration in the novel for their art, writing and research.

The “Fan Fiction Essay Contest”—sponsored by the English department’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Publishing and Editing program—allows students to create their own short fiction incorporating the characters, settings, contexts or ideas from “Ready Player One,” as a means of extending, critiquing or redirecting the vision of the novel.

Submissions are due by 4 p.m. on Oct. 20, preferably in electronic form, to MFA director Scott Kaukonen, at cwmfa@shsu.edu.

The winner will receive a $250 scholarship.

The “Poetry and Lyric Contest,” sponsored by the Professional and Academic Center for Excellence, seeks student verses on either a surviving spirit in a dystopian future dependent on virtual reality and threatened by environmental decline or on key concerns in contemporary life and technology’s place in our future, as well as our relationship to the past.

Submissions are due by 4 p.m. on Oct. 20, with the proper submission cover form, to Anne Theodori at aet001@shsu.edu.

Two scholarships will be awarded: one $250 prize for a first-time freshman and one $250 prize for a full-time student.

The “Freshman Essay Contest,” sponsored by the New Student Orientation program, asks students to connect the book’s quest to themes or issues important to us today, using specific examples from the book to support an interpretation. These themes can include the novel’s treatment of social networking, identity formation, environmental sustainability or online education.

Submissions are due by 4 p.m. on Oct. 27, and the winner will earn a $500 scholarship.

2014 BRTS Contests Fan Fiction Essay Due Oct. 20 Poetry & Lyric Due Oct. 20 Freshman Essay Due Oct. 27 Research Poster Due Nov. 3 Art Due Nov. 3-4 Newton Gresham Library Daily, via Facebook

The “Research Poster” contest, sponsored by the Elliott T. Bowers Honors College, encourages incoming freshmen to begin research by investigating a theme from the novel and presenting that research in poster form.

Posters are due by 4 p.m. on Nov. 3, and the winner will be awarded a $500 scholarship.

Finally, the “Art Contest,” sponsored by the Lowman Student Center, asks students to explore themes of the novel creatively, through an art form.

Art work, along with an accompanying synopsis (on the official submission cover form), will be accepted between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Nov. 3-4 at the Lowman Student Center Art Gallery.

Prizes will be awarded in three categories: the best of show will earn $250; second place will earn $150; and honorable mention will earn $100. Winners will also be recognized during a reception and award ceremony on Nov. 12, from 5-6 p.m. in the LSC Art Gallery, where submissions will be exhibited.

Winners of all of these contests also will be recognized at the author’s lunch and can dine with Cline on Nov. 12.

Students should check the BRTS contest website, at at shsu.edu/brtscontests, for complete rules and submission requirements, as well as submission forms.

In addition to these contests, the Newton Gresham Library is hosting daily contests on the library’s Facebook page. Prizes are given each day for the first student who answers the question marked #ReadyPlayerOne or #LibraryWin.

The library’s Facebook page can be found at Facebook.com/shsulibrary.

For more information on these contests, or to pick up a free copy of the novel to “get inspired,” contact the Student Success Initiatives office at 936.294.3422 or go online at shsu.edu/brtscontests.

 

 

 

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