High school student essay contest - archive of winning essays

2018, Essays on Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit
Neighborhood Academic Initiative, Los Angeles, CA

Sabina Mendoza, "I Protest: An Analysis of Frederick Dorrit's Agency in Dickens's Little Dorrit"
Andrew Oropeza, "Broken Sounds: Mr. Dorrit's Interrupted Speech in Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit"
Jasmin Sanchez, "A Humble Love: Class and Feelings in Dickens's Little Dorrit"
Keyrin Velasquez, "Running to No Avail: A Comparison of Mr. Dorrit and Mr. Merdle in Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit"
Angie Veliz, "Penetrable Impenetrability: The Statue-like Mrs. Clennam in Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit"
Alyssa Young, "To Rave About Amy: The Big Outbursts About Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit"

2017, Essays on George Eliot's Middlemarch
Neighborhood Academic Initiative, Los Angeles, CA

Jessica Hernandez, "Sympathetic Visions Woven Together: Dorthea's Noble Nature in Middlemarch"
Natalie Montenegro, "The Innovation of a Quest: A Scene of Sympathy in George Eliot's Middlemarch"
Karla Paredes, "The United States of Middlemarch: The Case of the Townspeople vs. Bulstrode"
Millie Sanchez, "The Awaited Encounter: Dorthea's Transformative Sympathy in George Eliot's Middlemarch"
Fatima Saravia, "Revelation as Success: Dorthea's Crisis in George Eliot's Middlemarch"
Hunter Wilkinson, "The Misconceptions of a Marriage: Rosamond and Lydgate's Marital Crisis in George Eliot's Middlemarch"
Oswerd Xol, "The Apparent vs. the Authentic Quest: The Scene of Rosamond's Crisis in George Eliot's Middlemarch"
Honorable Mention: Gabriel Juarez, "Dorthea's Vocation: Close Reading a Scene of Empathy"
Honorable Mention: Vanessa Zelaya, "Through Deceived Eyes: Reading the Scratches of Dorthea's Complex Life"

2016, Essays on Charles Dickens's Dombey and Son
Neighborhood Academic Initiative, Los Angeles, CA

Georgia Delgado, "Saving the Father: Empathy, Critique and the Victorian Patriarchy in Dombey and Son"
Mauricio Garcia, "Ebb and Flow: Water, Loss and the Human in Dickens' Dombey and Son"
Amber Johnston, "Mobile Poperties: Feminizing Movement in Dombey and Son, Examining How Reversals in Mobility Reflect Changing Gender Norms"
Kimberly Mejia, "(Un)Happy Homes: Disrupting the Domestic in Dombey and Son"

2015, Essays on Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit and American Notes
Neighborhood Academic Initiative, Los Angeles, CA

2014

Kenia Coyoy (Los Angeles, CA), "What Lies Beneath the Dust: The Duality of Deception in Our Mutual Friend"
Karen Molina (Los Angeles, CA), "British Independence, Rather Perverted: The Problematic Independence of Betty Higden in Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend"

2013

2012

Natalie Kopp (Westerville, OH), "Monsters Most Dreadful: Institutions in A Tale of Two Cities"
Abigail Wilkinson (Herndon, VA), "'A Far Better Thing': The Heroism of A Tale of Two Cities' Syndey Carton"

2011

2010

Molly Van Doren (Andover, MA), "The Price of Education in Charles Dickens's Hard Times"
Katie Knowles (Andover, MA), "Hard Times's James Harthouse — Harbinger of Dreams"

2009

Ben Gittelson (Atlanta, GA), "Great Expectations: Pip's Moral Journey as a Message for America"
Larissa Walder (Madison, WI), "Conscious Change" (Great Expectations)

2008

Ruth Li (Logan, UT), "Pip's Forward Thinking: Dickens' Message of Moral Progression" (Great Expectations)
Grace Lin (Fremont, CA), "The Power of Reformation" (A Christmas Carol)

2007

Sarah Bufkin (Atlanta, GA), "Charles Dickens: In His Time and in Ours" (A Tale of Two Cities)
Wendy Graver-Dowd (San Ramon, CA), "Disunity in Diversity: Dickens as a guide to today's social contrasts" (Great Expectations)

2006

Sam Greene (Claremont, CA), "Pointing Ever Upwards: Dickens' Novels as a Guide to Good Living" (David Copperfield)