Maya Bernstein-Schalet Honored for First-Year Seminar Essay

2017 Apr 3

Maya Bernstein-Schalet '20 is one of five students who received a First-Year Seminar Essay award during a ceremony March 28. The students received cash awards ranging from $250 to $75 and a book, selected by their course instructor. With support from The Endeavor Foundation of New York, Wesleyan was able to offer the offer inaugural awards ceremony.

Bernstein-Schalet took second place in a tie with her essay, “Mocking the World in The Life of Symeon the Fool,” written in her College of Letters 150 course, Great Books UnBound.

During the First-Year Seminar program, faculty teach students the specifics of college-level academic writing: formulating an original, debatable claim; supporting that claim with textual and scholarly evidence; making analytical rather than simply observational arguments; and synthesizing one's points into an effective conclusion.