The Benjamin T. Carr Award

The Templeton Honors College is pleased to announce that senior writing major Emilie Eastman is the winner of the first annual Benjamin T. Carr Memorial Award for truth seeking in journalism and creative nonfiction. Her winning article, “The American Day Dream,” was published on November 11, 2011.

The submissions were carefully reviewed by a distinguished panel of judges, including retired Eastern University English professor and former Academic Dean, Betsy Morgan, Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer, Paul Nussbaum, and Eastern and Templeton alumnus Brandon Zimmerman, a doctoral student in Philosophy at Catholic University of America and a dear friend of Benjamin Carr.

The judges gave high praise for Ms. Eastman, noting that she “was the strongest candidate among the talented entries. In her writing, Ms. Eastman demonstrates a laudable facility with language and a keen appreciation for words as a force for good. Her writing evidences a beautiful combination of grounded hope and imaginative realism. She knows that writing is and should be fun for the writer. She also knows that her voice counts, so it better be good. Good for her means telling gritty truths with the passionate expectation that what seems is not determinant. Words, and work, matter deeply!”

Commenting on her submission they noted that “her editorial rightly diagnoses one of the chief problems in the culture of American education and challenges the reader to consider the goodness of life’s natural limits. Her commitment both to journalism and to the less fortunate is apparent in her work. As editor-in-chief of the student paper (2011-2012) and as an advocate for Haitian earthquake victims, Eastman exemplifies the ‘love of seeking the truth as demonstrated by effort, persistence and potential in journalism’ that is the goal of the Carr Award.”

The Benjamin T. Carr Memorial Scholarship was established in 2011 to honor Benjamin Carr, who graduated from the Templeton Honors College in 2006. Recipients of the scholarship should exemplify a love of seeking the truth as demonstrated by effort, persistence, and potential in journalism or creative non-fiction.

The Templeton Honors College congratulates Emilie Eastman for her accomplishment.