We’re so pleased to announce that the results of the first ever Overachiever Op-Ed Contest are now out. With nearly 100 entrants, the Overachiever board spent countless hours deliberating on and reviewing submissions. In the end, we selected 3 Winners, 5 Finalists, 10 Semi-Finalists, and will be awarding $275 in prize money. Congratulations to the winners and a huge shout out to everyone who submitted essays to the contest.
Read the winning essays below:
The Winners:
First Place ($100): “Heart Beats” by Leah Kendal (‘24)
Second Place ($75): “Reposting Is Not Helping” by Nisha Singhi (‘24)
Third Place ($50): “The Price of Free School Lunches” by Devi Chandran (‘24)
“School Shootings & Gun Control” by Julia Girgis (‘25)
“The Crime of Voter Suppression in America” by Jaxson Kaplan-Rudolph (‘25)
“Participation Awards” by Cyrus Schoneman (‘25)
“Abortion” by Mya Schultheis (‘25)
“French Secularism should not mean Islamophobia” by Tasneem Sunbulli (‘25)
“The World Is Going To Die: How To Fix That” by By Obioma Aguwa (‘25)
“A call to action, an olympic argument” by Jude Andrews (‘25)
“Modern Beauty Standards are Toxic and Unrealistic” by Natalie Chen (‘25)
“What Is The Best Clash Royale Card” by Zane Dahabra (‘25)
“Colombian coffee is the best tasting kind of coffee when compared to other varieties. There are quite a few reasons why this is true” by Sebastian Hernandez (‘25)
“Evolving the World Starts with Eating Natural” by Vennela Manepalli (‘25)
“Cancel Homework” by Jackson Otlewski (‘25)
“The Fine Line Between Free Speech, and Murder” by Fernanda Salmon (‘25)
“Gun Control” by Sanjith Sambath (‘25)
Stay tuned for our upcoming Podcast Challenge!
–Priya Shah (‘22) and Tas Rahman (‘22)
The Editors-in-Chief of the IA Overachiever
The Overachiever 