"I've gained a broad perspective and appreciation for the world around me by studying liberal arts. This experience motivates me to continue pursuing an education to eventually become a teacher. And by teaching future students, I am equipped to give back to my community the education that a liberal arts degree and this scholarship have provided for me."

Please click here to read Anna Marie's winning essay.

"I look to use my education and give back to the community. I wish to be involved with programs for all kids that need help. I can help them with art, writing, poetry. These tools will help release our children by form of expression. This scholarship will not only help me. It will help me help other's in the long run."

Please click here to read Annette's winning essay.

"I completed my undergraduate education at the University of Pittsburgh and am currently a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology and History Program at the University of Michigan. Born and raised in Western Pennsylvania, I am married and currently live in Buffalo, New York. I recently received an IIE Fulbright Scholarship for study in Australia, and was previously Visiting Scholar at The Australian National University in 2005 while conducting preliminary dissertation research. At the University of Michigan, I have been a graduate teaching assistant for classes on the history and theory of punishment offered by the Residential College.

My research focuses on the history of prison expansion and changes in penal politics in the American state of Pennsylvania and the Australian state of New South Wales since the 1960s. I am interested in exploring the various ways common citizens, politicians, correctional staff, and inmates understood and explained the rapidly changing practices and purposes of punishment during this period and how it related to other events of the time. For the Australia part of my research I will be affiliated with the Faculty of Law and the University of New South Wales in Sydney. My hope is that my research will highlight how prison and punishment were central to the changes in state governance and economic reform during the last three decades while also stimulating new ideas about how to alter current practices."

Please click here to read Joshua's winning essay.

"A StraightForward Media Liberal Arts Scholarship would help me participate in a very important international literary event (Synapsis: School of Comparative Studies, held in Bologna, Italy) where my application has been accepted. In September 2007, there will be a very prestigious graduate seminar taught by Dr. Hayden White (Stanford University) on the structure of scandal in literature. This intensive one-week seminar could be very helpful in terms of my own research for my dissertation, which I�m about to start writing in the fall. During this event, I would attend both this seminar and other lectures by highly renowned scholars from all over the world. Thus, this event would also be a great opportunity for me to make professional contacts for the future."

Please click here to read Maria's winning essay.

"My name is Kathryn Szymkiewicz. Currently I am a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Economics. In the future I plan to apply to Graduate School to obtain a Master of Arts in Education degree. Social studies and the social sciences are two of the most powerful passions in my life and I hope to inspire and motivate students in my hometown of Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania to view the past as something to be revered rather then forgotten. Economics coupled with a strong grasp on history grants anyone willing to study them a clear view of the path our nation and world are currently following. With the StraightForward Media Liberal Arts Scholarship I was bestowed with the means to make my dreams a reality and mold future generations of students and for that I am truly thankful! "

Please click here to read Kathryn's winning essay.

Her further literary achievements include two publications in two non-fiction anthologies: We Got Issues: A Young Woman's Guide To A Bold, Courageous and Empowered Life (In Stores Now) and There By Hangs A Tale: Birth (Coming Out Spring 2007), and was the Student Editor of Hostos Community College's Poetry/Arts Journal entitled Escriba!/Write! which received the 2006 CCHA Eastern Region Small Journal Award.

Please click here to read Nicole's winning essay.

"After obtaining my M.S. I plan to pursue a Juris Doctorate degree. I intend to combine the J.D. and M.S. degrees to advocate for disability rights, write disability management policy, analyze contemporary disability policy and work directly with consumers who receive rehabilitation services in understanding their rights and the rehabilitation process.

Please click here to read Eddie's winning essay.

"I was excited to be accepted at UCLA which has a research-oriented history program, and I began my first quarter there in the fall of 2005. It was a huge adjustment for me to move across the country, where I had neither relatives nor friends. Equally as trying was the transition from the academic workload of community college to the much more considerable workload assigned to me at this new institution. However, after sweating through the first quarter, I received grades that I was quite satisfied with."

Please click here to read Kyle's winning essay.