First and Second Year Students
First Place
Jesse Walker
The Evergreen State College
"The measurable is what we know, and the immeasurable is what the heart searches for." (PDF)
Third and Fourth Year Students
Contest Details
The winning essays were reviewed by four panels of judges. A special thank you goes out to the panel of our finalist judges:
- Frank Blethen, Publisher and Chief Executive Officer, The Seattle Times
- Kristofer Johnson, President, Association of Washington Business
- Stephen Mullin, President, Washington Roundtable
- Hans Zeiger, State Representative
The essay contest was open to all undergraduate students currently enrolled in WaCLA member institutions. Entrants were divided into two categories: students who have freshman or sophomore standing at their institution and those who have junior or senior standing. Awards were made in two categories: freshmen/sophomores and juniors/seniors. Two awards were made in each category: $1,000 for first place and $750 for second place.
The student essays responded to the following prompt:
In 2012, Washington STEM’s Sandi Everlove and Washington Consortium for the Liberal Arts Chair Michael Zimmerman stated in a Seattle Times OpEd:
"When an imaginary controversy is promoted between STEM disciplines and the liberal arts, all it does is divert our attention from focusing on the larger problems associated with the lack of public funding for higher education. Such false controversies make poor public policy."
With that conflict in mind, in no more than 500 words, please respond to the following adage: "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
On behalf of WaCLA, thank you for participating!
Michael Zimmerman
Vice President for Academic Affairs
The Evergreen State College