Innovation Essay Contest

Sponsored by the Wachman Center Program on Teaching Innovation

The FPRI Wachman Center’s Program on Teaching Innovation is pleased to announce the following winners of our essay contest on “The Top Five U.S. Inventions since 1945”:

Megan Bodie
St. Ursula Academy, Toledo, OH
read essay (35K Microsoft Word document)
Mary Streidl
Lake Forest High School, Lake Forest, IL
read essay (32K Microsoft Word document)
Chelsea Wolner and Jaime Zyvoloski
Centennial High School, Circle Pines, MN
read essay (36K Microsoft Word document)

The winning essay writers each receive a $1,000 prize, split in the case of teams. Additionally, our judges agreed that three essays deserved honorable mentions:

Stephen Lurie, Nameir Abbas and Brian King
Cherry Creek High School, Greenwood Village, CO
read essay (33K Microsoft Word document)
Amisha Vadalia
Eastern Regional High School, Voorhees, NJ
read essay (34K Microsoft Word document)
David Stiger and Varshil Patel
Franklin High School, Somersest, NJ
read essay (38K Microsoft Word document)

The honorable mention essay writers each receive $150, split in the case of teams.

We congratulate the winners and thank all the students who participated in this contest. We were very pleased with the creativity, thoughtfulness, and care that went into them.

The Wachman Center founded its program on innovation in 2007 out of growing awareness of how important it is for students to understand the history of innovation and be encouraged to themselves be innovative. Core funding for the Wachman Center is provided by the Annenberg Foundation and Mr. H.F. Lenfest; additional funding for its innovation program is provided by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. For more information, see www.fpri.org/education/innovation or email Wachman Center director Alan Luxenberg, lux@fpri.org