Centennial Essay Contest Winner Announced

VALDOSTA - Leann Boyd was named winner of the Valdosta State University Centennial Essay Contest at the Student Leadership Awards Banquet held Wednesday night, April 4.

Boyd’s winning essay was unanimously selected by a panel of evaluators and it followed the established criteria. It was original and historically accurate, presented significant information, demonstrated grammatical and stylistic excellence and provided appropriate documentation. Her winning entry earned her $250 from the VSU Centennial Steering Committee.

A graduate student in VSU’s Master of Library and Information Science program, Boyd’s essay, “Library Science in Valdosta: From Humble Beginnings to a Promising Future,” presents a chronology of this discipline from 1938 when Georgia State Womans College started offering library science courses through the beginnings of VSU’s current masters program, which began in 2001. University Archivist, Deborah Davis, has shown interest in publishing the essay.

The Centennial Essay contest was initiated as part of the multi-year 100th anniversary celebration in hopes it would commemorate the history of VSU as well as recognize the academic accomplishments of students. The Steering Committee’s goals for the contest were to help educate the VSU community about the history of the institution, encourage scholarly research on VSU history, promote and reward academic achievement by VSU students and to produce further material for the VSU archives. Any VSU student enrolled during fall semester 2006 was eligible to enter. Additional centennial celebrations will continue through 2013.