Sample Essay Contest Questions
In 2009, incoming first-year students were asked to read Three Cups of Tea, One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Below is a sample of the 2009 essay contest rules that students were asked to follow.
The 2009 Common Reading Essay Contest is open to first-year CWRU students. Essays will be based on Three Cups of Tea, which students will receive in July.
Essays should be approximately 1,000 words in length and submitted to Educational Services for Students (ESS) for review. Winners will receive University Bookstore gift certificates of $300 sponsored by the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities. Winners of this year's Essay Contest also will be guests at a special dinner with Greg Mortenson on Wednesday, August 26.
The deadline to submit your essay online is 11:59 p.m. Friday, August 7. Please e-mail your submission to sharevision@case.edu.
Essay Questions
Please choose one of the following prompts:
Prompt #1
The book Three Cups of Tea relates the inspirational story of Greg Mortenson. After failing to climb mountain K-2, Mortenson recuperates among the people of Korphe, who inspire him to focus his passion, energy, and resources on building schools in rural Pakistan — a successful venture that continues today. While Mortenson's transformative decision may seem abrupt, his family background, personality, education, and work experience may have prepared him for his new mission.
As you reflect on Mortenson's story, where do you perceive radical changes in his approach to life and where do you notice continuities? More generally, which elements of our personalities do you see as stable and which do you see as subject to change, depending on our individual experiences and life choices?
In responding to this prompt, you are welcome to describe a transformative decision in your own life, or in the life of someone you know about, instead of focusing on Mortenson's. Whatever your choice, your essay should help the reader understand the decision and subsequent events in the light of previous experiences or specific personality traits.
Prompt #2
What does the book Three Cups of Tea tell us about the issues or risks that we face when attempting to help others, especially when we may be perceived as outsiders?
Does Mortenson do a good job of being aware of cultural contexts? To what extent did his humanitarian work depend on building relationships "one cup of tea at a time?" What general lessons do you draw from his example?
In responding to this prompt, you are welcome to describe your own experience, or the experience of someone you know about who is trying to make a positive contribution to another person's life or to a community. What obstacles or challenges does this kind of effort present? What difference did relationship-building make, or what difference could it have made to the story you tell?