The Camden Conference is pleased to announce the winners of its third high school student essay contest which focused on the 2018 Conference theme: New World Disorder and America’s Future. First prize was a tie and went to Levi McAtee from Lincoln Academy for his essay A Virtual Threat to Democracy: The Threat of Fake News to Modern Democracy and How It Can Be Mitigated. The second winner was Jonathan Meserve from Edward Little High School for his essay The Minsk Peace: A Critical Analysis. Lareina Zhang from Gould Academy won the second prize for her essay Britain, the United States, and Isolationism. Third prize went to Hannah Sylvia Bagley from Piscataquis Community High School for her essay Preservation of a Nation. The Conference congratulates our winners.

The essay contest is part of a special program for eleven Maine high schools in 2017-18 called “Camden Conference in the Classroom” (CCC). Essay contest winners were enrolled in a course in their high school related to the Conference topic and participated in the 31st annual Camden Conference. Twenty percent of the 1,000 Conference attendees are high school and college students who receive Camden Conference scholarship funding to defray their registration cost.

This award was established by Captain Bill Taylor who was a longtime supporter of the Camden Conference and of education programming. Captain Taylor had a distinguished career as a Naval Officer, an Academic in Warfare Science, and Director of Long Range Strategic Planning for Anti-Submarine Warfare at the Pentagon. His career took him all over the world during various wars, and his creative influence on Naval Warfare lingers.

1st Prize (tie)

Levi McAtee, Lincoln Academy

1st Prize (tie)

Jonathan Meserve, Edward Little High School 

2nd Prize

Lareina Zhang, Gould Academy

3rd Prize

Hannah Sylvia Bagley, Piscataquis Community High School