BB&N Announces Junior-Year English and History Paper Prize Winners
The History and Social Sciences Department and the English Department have announced the winners of their junior-year writing prizes for essays written last winter and spring, respectively, and judged over the summer by panels of judges outside of BB&N.
Two BB&N seniors have received top honors in the annual Junior Profile Contest, the final event in the cornerstone English project for all eleventh-graders. The panel of judges—writers and editors outside of BB&N—has awarded first prize to Sophia Stafford ’25 and second prize to Walker Cox ’25.
The judges noted of the 16 outstanding profiles in the pool, “This year’s submissions, in myriad ways, explored themes of purpose and belonging in work—the sense of commitment coming not from the top down, but from the belonging and family that emanates from a calling, a chosen family, a sense of communal purpose as the individual explores what it means to work and to make.” The judges also noted, “the writing was compelling and clear—observations and details were deftly woven with dialogue to guide the reader through a day in the life of these individuals and also to communicate a sense of their distinct voices.”
For 40 years, the Junior Profile project has challenged students to harness their practiced skills in analytical thinking and writing about literature and apply them to a human subject beyond the classroom walls. Over the course of six spring weeks, through several drafts and with the ongoing feedback of their teachers, students produce an 8-to-10-paged New Yorker-style profile about the subject’s life work or a significant focus in that person’s life.
Among the professions depicted in this year’s pool of outstanding profiles are a sushi chef, a Mount Auburn Cemetery gardener, a ski patroller, a priest, a rabbi, a trans drag queen, a senior editor at WBUR’s “Here and Now,” a kindergarten teacher, and an ocularist—one who creates and paints prosthetic eyeballs.
All juniors also write a 2,200–3,600-word research paper on a topic of significance in United States history from 1491 to the present. The outside panel of judges awarded two U.S. History first prizes to essays by Walker Cox ’25 and Zoe Li-Khan ’25.
Additionally, second-place recognition went to Josh Curhan ’25 for his paper, Making Zionism American: How Louis D. Brandeis Redefined the American Zionist Movement, and third-place went to Ruhan Karthik for his paper, Malcolm X and the Fall of the Nation of Islam: A Clash of Two Fundamental Visions for Black Muslims.
Honorable mentions were awarded to history papers by Mia Gross-Loh, Avery Hart, Olivia Lee, Maggie Pond, Aleeza Riaz, Vikram Scherfke, and Chloe Taft, all Class of ’25.
