Babson College first-year student Ray Sarno, is winner of the Michael J. Conlon Prize for First Year Writing Award and Curtiss Ostosh, is winner of the Wooten Prize for sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

The Conlon Award, named in memory of Michael J. Conlon ’96, is presented for the best analytical writing by a first-year student. The contest is entirely student-run by a committee of experienced junior and senior Peer Writing Consultants from Babson’s Writing Center, who develop criteria for judging, solicit essays, market the Award, and select the winners.

Conlon Award winners and their essays are:

• First – Ray Sarno, “A New Age for Revolution”
• Second – Ann Hao, “The Circle of Language and Culture”
• Third – Izra Izrailov, “the Psychological and Emotional Effects of Modern American Advertising”

The Wooten Prize, founded by Babson alumnus Sim Wooten in memory of this father, rewards fine analytical writing from a Babson student at the sophomore, junior or senior level. It seeks out critical engagement on the part of the author that in turn stimulates intellectual curiosity on the part of the reader. This year’s judges were Professor Kandice Hauf (History and Society), Professor Virginia Rademacher (Arts and Humanities), Professor Richard Bliss (Finance), and Professor Neal Harris (Economics).

Wooten Prize winners and their essays are:

• First – Curtis Ostosh, “Application of Objective Morality”
• Second – Elizabeth Bugayong, “Propaganda’s Persuasions:  Using Their Tactics Against Them”
• Third – Pretty Varghese, “Inconceivable God in a Conceivable Mind”

Wooten Prize winner Curtis Ostosh, from Detroit and Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, is a rising senior pursuing a duel-concentration of economics and finance. He is also the recipient of the McLane Merit Scholarship. His essay was written for his Ethics class and looked at the ethical systems established by Immanuel Kant (the Categorical Imperative) and John Stuart Mill (Utilitarianism).  Second prize winner Elizabeth Bugayong, of Los Angeles, has worked in the Writing Center and was Marketing Director for the Babson Entertainment Initiative. She is currently pursuing a career in entertainment marketing.  From Danbury, Connecticut, Pretty Varghese is a junior interested in Global Strategic Management and Legal Studies who felt writing the essay provided both a personal and academic challenge.