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The Betty G. Headley Senior Essay Award was established in memory of alum Sara Elizabeth Headley's (BA' 04) mother. This annual award honours upper-year undergraduate students' essays in the categories of Best Course Essay and Best Personal Essay.

This year, we are honoured to award the Best Course Essay to two students, Sarah Baughan (BA' 25) and Andie Kaiser (BA' 25), who will split the $1,500 prize. Both Best Course Essays were submitted as part of the American Poetry Since 1850 (ENGL 348) class taught by Dr. Chad Wriglesworth. Sarah's essay titled "Death, Desire, and Disillusionment: Finding Emily Dickinson in Ethel Cain's Preacher's Daughter" and Andie's essay titled "So I Turn but I Learn": Sylvia Plath's Transformative Presence in the Lyrics of Lana Del Rey" were selected as the standout essays from this year's entries.Sarah will graduate from the Honours Arts and Business program with a major in English Literature and go on to law school. Andie is in her last term of an Honours Arts degree in English Literature, with a Creative Writing specialization and will be starting a master's degree in Cinema Studies.

The award for Best Personal Essay was awarded to Nadia Khan (BA' 25), who will be graduating with an Honours Arts degree in English Literature. She is an award-winning writer and reporter who has written for PressProgress, the Toronto Star, Teen Vogue, and Canadian Dimension. Her essay titled "Therapy Brought Me Hope" reflects on the themes of hope, faith and perseverance in times of struggle. Nadia is a proud alum of the Toronto International Film Festival's Media Inclusion Initiative and Shared Bylines. After graduation, she plans on pursuing a career in culture criticism and screenwriting.

"Every year, the level of writing that we see in the student papers is of the highest quality, making adjudicating these awards no easy task.  I am very thankful to the committee members who dedicated hours to reading through this year's submissions," says Michelle Atkin, associate librarian.  "After much deliberation, we had a tie for Best Course Essay.  The committee felt the two winning course essays best demonstrated the intention of the competition: to recognize originality, persuasiveness, and eloquence in student writing. Likewise, the winning personal essay lived up to the aim of the competition, which is to provide students with an opportunity for self-expression, self-reflection, and self-understanding through the genre of life writing."

Each year, students follow award submission guidelines to have their essays considered by a selection committee for either the Best Course Essay or Best Personal Essay categories. Course Essays include those written for a third- or fourth-year level course taught at St. Jerome's University, the University of Waterloo, or an affiliated institution.