Abigail Zinzi
The Mount is filled with so many academic achievers. Two mountaineers have taken home first place prizes in the Delta Epsilon Sigma Writing Contest. Delta Epsilon Sigma is a national scholastic honor society for colleges and universities affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. Every year Delta Epsilon Sigma invites members of those colleges and universities to submit a student piece for each of the five categories in the Fitzgerald Writing Competition.
Fortunately, two winners in this contest attend the Mount! Erin Daly (C’24) took home the prize for first place in the critical/analytical category. The essay itself was written for Dr. Indrani Mitra’s Latin American Literature class.
Daly is currently a senior with a double major in accounting and English, and she is heavily involved with extra curriculars at the Mount. Notably, she is the fiction editor for Lighted Corners, so her experience and involvement with writing is expansive.
“I feel so honored to have won first place for my analytical essay,” says Daly. Her piece explores how author Gabriel Garcia Marquez depicts the historical 1928 Banana Massacre in his novel, “One Hundred Years of Solitude”.
Daly credits Mitra for creating a “fascinating” class that introduced her to the novel itself. Daly mentioned that she is, “grateful and honored to have received these awards”, and that she’s “proud of the other Mount students who placed as well.”
Another Mount student who placed is senior Michael Murphy. Murphy also placed first in the category of scholarly research while taking Dr. Charles Strauss’ Senior Seminar class.
Murphy admits that he was not very familiar with the contest, but Strauss encouraged him to submit one of his works, and it worked out in his favor.
The work he submitted was research he did on Black Catholics during the Gilded Age (1880s-90s), specifically in the U.S. The writing focused on Black Catholic men who organized themselves with the help of the Church to push for greater rights in society.
The win came as a surprise to Murphy saying, “I was not expecting to win at all. I was thinking some senior at Notre Dame or something would win with some groundbreaking paper, so it was a really nice surprise.”
Our winners provide some advice for anyone considering this writing contest or a contest of this sort. They both agree that you should just go for it, since you really have nothing to lose.
Daly shares that the submission process is simple, and Murphy reminds others there’s no penalty for losing, so why not try? Daly and Murphy prove that taking a chance can pay off in the end.
Mount St. Mary’s is so proud of them for their hard work and dedication.
Kelly Blanco