About the Boothe Prize
The Boothe Prize recognizes and rewards outstanding expository and argumentative writing by first-year students in the Writing and Rhetoric and Thinking Matters Programs. One first-place and one honorable mention prize are awarded to outstanding essays from each academic quarter at an annual award ceremony in May.
Each first place winner receives a certificate, a copy of The Collected Poems and Prose of Robert Frost and $350. Each honorable mention winner receives a certificate, a copy of The Collected Poems and Prose of Robert Frostand $200. The winning essays are published annually in Boothe Prize Essays: Excellence in Writing at Stanford and are available online through this website.
The Boothe Prizes have been made possible by the generosity of the late D. Power Boothe, Jr. and his wife Catie. Mr. Boothe was a graduate of the Stanford class of '31.
Boothe Prize essays for 2019-2020
The 2019-2020 year's Boothe Prize book is available as a PDF.
PWR Winners for 2019-2020
- Cole Maxwell (Winner, Spring 2019). "Mrs. Stanford in the Nile: The Legacy of the Stanford Family's Collection Practices in Egypt at the Turn of the 20th Century." Instructor: Gigi Otalvaro.
- Caroline Utz (Honorable Mention, Spring 2019). "Dove, Real Beauty, and Pseudo Social Change: The Consumption, Commodification, and Commercialization of the Body Positive Movement." Instructor: Yanshuo Zhang.
- Gautam Manohar (Winner, Fall 2019). "Common Core Math Standards Should Stay in Elementary School Classrooms." Instructor: Shay Brawn.
- Malavika Kannan (Winner, Fall 2019). "Targeting a Generation: How Intersectional Youth Outreach Can Overcome America's Gun Divide." Instructor: Jennifer Johnson.
- Langston Nashold (Honorable Mention, Fall 2019). "A Climate of Denial: The Cause of and Solution to Republican Skepticism of Climate Science." Instructor: Mutallip Anwar.
- Madeleine Parker Cassic (Winner, Winter 2020). "The Battle for Public Education." Instructor: Lisa Swan.
