Cal Poly English Department Names American Scholar Prize Winner

The Cal Poly English Department selected Monique Nicholas as the recipient of the 2014 American Scholar Prize. She will receive her award at the English Department commencement ceremony Saturday, June 14.

The American Scholar Prize is an annual $500 award created by Linda Halisky, former English department chair and College of Liberal Arts dean, to recognize a Cal Poly English major who exhibits an interest in literature and language.

Nicholas’ winning short essay demonstrated to the selection committee her understanding of the timelessness of literature and its ability to help understand the human condition. She wrote that literature has allowed her to “become a part of something so much larger than myself, to open myself up to the perspectives of the past, to make me contemplate the present.”