WashU’s College Writing Program recently celebrated the 2025 winners and finalists of the James E. McLeod First-Year Writing Prize.
The award, given to one student in Arts & Sciences and one student in another undergraduate division, recognizes meaningful research related to race, gender and identity. It is named after McLeod, who served as vice chancellor for students and dean of Arts & Sciences before his death in 2011, and who encouraged students to connect intellectual endeavors with their own lived experiences.
Camille Johnson, a sophomore majoring in physics in Arts & Sciences, won first prize for her paper on the gender gap in physics. Johnson explained that physics relies on the elusive idea of “physical intuition.” Women, in particular, are more likely to struggle with confidence and interpret struggle as failure. Johnson argued that reframing intuition as a developed skill, rather than a gift, could help overcome this gap.
Also in Arts & Sciences, Theseus Kreicbergs was a runner-up, and Danbee You received an honorable mention.
The second first prize award went to Izzy Mbatai, a sophomore double majoring in business, at Olin Business School, and in computer science, at the McKelvey School of Engineering, for his paper, “‘They not like us’ — Who actually won the Drake vs. Kendrick beef?” In this paper, Mbatai argued that the real loser in the infamous Drake-Kendrick Lamar feud was Black culture, which gets reduced to content that is monetized, consumed and recycled for clicks and streams.
Olin student Kerri Greene was the runner-up; Olin student Ben Stephens received an honorable mention.
