FFRF’s 2025 grad student essay winners announced

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is proud to announce the 10 top winners and four honorable mentions in the 2025 Cornelius Vander Broek Graduate/Older Student Essay Competition.

FFRF has paid out a total of $16,250 in award money for this contest.

This year’s topic is, “State/church issues endangered by the Trump administration’s capitulation to Christian nationalism.” Students were asked to write an essay focused on one issue that is under threat by Christian nationalist policies in the current administration.

Winners, their ages, colleges or universities they are attending and the award amount are listed below.

FIRST PLACE

Julius Calvert, 26, University of North Texas, $3,500.

SECOND PLACE

Kyria Santa, 24, Emory University, $3,000.

THIRD PLACE

Ian Webb, 29, Georgia Institute of Technology, $2,500.

FOURTH PLACE

Bailee Roberts, 23, Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling, $2,000.

FIFTH PLACE

Jacqueline Thomas, 25, University of North Texas, $1,500.

SIXTH PLACE

Claire Rosemary Lewis, 24, Duke University, $1,000.

SEVENTH PLACE

Ione A. Rodriguez, 30, University of Texas at San Antonio, $750.

EIGHTH PLACE

Megan Lyman, 29, Michigan State University, $500.

NINTH PLACE

Michael Richardson, 25, Berklee College of Music, $400.

TENTH PLACE

Matthew Reyes, 28, University of Texas at San Antonio, $300.

HONORABLE MENTIONS ($200 each)

Bailey Diaz, 25, San Jose State University.

Lewis Luis, 27, City College of New York.

Jeremiah J. Moore, 30, University of North Carolina At Pembroke.

Morgan Wegner, 26, Upper Iowa University.

FFRF thanks Lisa Treu for managing the details of this and FFRF’s other student essay competitions. FFRF would also like to thank its volunteers and staff for reading and judging the essays, including Paul Baker, Dan Barker, David Chivers, Annie Laurie Gaylor, Tim Hatcher, Jeffrey La Vicka, Katya Maes, Tori Mizerak, Kurt Mohnsam, Henry Mongrain, Andrea Osburne, Brooks Rimes, Rose Mary Sheldon, PJ Slinger and Kimberly Waldron.

FFRF has offered essay competitions to college students since 1979, high school students since 1994, grad students since 2010, one for students of color since 2016, and a fifth contest for law students since 2019.