Three students who participated in Hope College's 1999 Vienna Summer School have been named winners in the 18th annual Howard Plaggemars Essay Competition.
Three students who participated in Hope College's 1999 Vienna Summer School have been named winners in the 18th annual Howard Plaggemars Essay Competition.
The winners are: first place, junior Dana Lamers
of Hudsonville, who is majoring in English with a writing
emphasis; second place, senior Sarah Martin of Midland, who
is an English major; and third place, senior Amy Moldenhauer
of Walled Lake, who is a language arts composite major.
All entries responded to some aspect of each
student's experiences in Europe this past summer under the
guidance of Dr. Stephen I. Hemenway, who has been the
director of the Vienna Summer School program for 24 years
and is a professor of English at Hope. The donor of the
prizes, Howard Plaggemars of Holland, is a 1960 and 1961
alumnus of the Vienna Summer School, as well as a 1960 Hope
graduate.
Lamers received her award for a poem titled "The
Heaviest Bags I've Ever Begged to Carry: Remembrances from
a Summer Studying in Vienna, Austria." Martin received her
award for a personal essay, "American Roses Go Home."
Moldenhauer received her award for a personal essay, "A
Night at the Opera."
Three Vienna Summer School graduates, all of whom
are previous winners in the Plaggemars Essay Competition,
served as judges: Lori Scoby of Philadelphia, a 1997 Hope
graduate who is an editor for Progressive Business
Publications; Tom Bamborough, a 1983 Hope graduate who is
principal of Bamborough Print Communication in Ada; and
Elizabeth Trembley, a 1985 Hope graduate who is head of
academics and faculty development at the Holland campus of
Davenport College Holland and author of a critical study of
Michael Crichton's works.
The prizes included cash awards of $100, $50 and
$25 for first, second and third places respectively.
Since the Vienna Summer School's founding in 1956
by Dr. Paul G. Fried, more than 2,000 students from more
than 180 colleges and universities have discovered how
summer study in Vienna can provide them with a meaningful
introduction to the rich heritage of European civilization.
Consisting of two consecutive three-week sessions,
the program offers students a choice of work in art history,
communication, economics, Austrian history, music history,
interdisciplinary studies, German and Austrian literature,
Eastern European literature and a senior seminar, all taught
in English, as well as courses in German language, taught in
German. Students are housed with Austrian families, and are
free to plan their leisure time and take weekend excursions
led by Hemenway to places like Salzburg, Venice, Budapest,
Prague, Bratislava, and the Austrian Alps.