UHCL student wins honorable mention in national essay contest
Eliah Medina, senior legal studies major at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, won an honorable mention in a national essay contest sponsored by the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. His essay made it through several rounds of cuts, and it went on to win Honorable Mention and a $500 scholarship.
Elie Wiesel was a human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize-winning author of more than 50 books, including “Night,” a memoir based on the time he was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Wiesel and his wife Marion created the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity in 1986 . The foundation was created in the memory of the Holocaust, and the mission of the foundation is to “combat indifference, intolerance and injustice through international dialogue and youth-focused programs that promote acceptance, understanding and equality.”
The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity established the essay contest in 1989. Each year the contest encourages students from hundreds of universities across the nation to explore their concerns, beliefs, fears and hopes. These students are encouraged to write about any subject that they feel strongly about as long as it pertains to an ethical dilemma and shows evidence on how the dilemma affected the student.
“Whatever the answer to essential questions of society and individual human beings may be, education is surely it’s major component, but what would education be without its ethical dimension?” questioned Eli Wiesel in an open letter to students on his foundation website. “Many of us believe them to be inseparable.”
Medina first heard of the contest when Sean Addington, a friend who knew he was seeking a scholarship, gave him a flyer for the essay contest in 2015. Reading and writing are among his favorite hobbies, and he finds himself constantly doing both.
“I struggled for a while on what to write and how to make it relevant to my life,” Medina said. “It wasn’t until October that I remembered about the open-carry on college campuses. This was happening around the same time as the gun violence at Planned Parenthood; after that I knew I wanted to write something about gun laws.”
Texas passed a campus carry law in 2015 making it legal to carry guns on four-year college campuses as of August 2106. In 2017, it will be legal to open carry on junior college campuses as well.
“This is a heated issue in our society right now, and there are valid stances on both sides of the issue,” Medina stated. “Me, personally, I stand on the side where I don’t think guns should be allowed on college campuses, I believe fear and suspicion will inhibit the free thinking and imagination of the classroom.”
Medina enjoys the freedoms of being able to discuss ideas safely with other students and feels that these new gun laws do not represent the rights to a safe education.
“Everyone should have the privilege of that personal growth,” Medina wrote in his essay, “That can only happen in a safe and secure environment.”
Elie Wiesel passed away in July. Although Medina never heard from Wiesel directly, Heather Foye, a representative from the Foundation, emailed him to let him know that Wiesel was on the panel of judges for this year’s essay contest and that he personally read Medina’s essay and really liked it.
“I’m extremely happy for and proud of Eliah,” said Vanessa Johnson, assistant professor of legal studies and Medina’s faculty sponsor for the essay contest. “I hope he continues to follow his passion for writing.”
Medina will graduate in December, and afterward, he will continue working full-time at a law firm in Pasadena. He plans to one day attend law school. Medina wants to thank Jim Benson, Pauline Eklund and his family for their constant support.
