The winner of Tri-State University's first annual Cunningham Essay Contest was announced on Monday (Nov. 25). Elizabeth Whitehead, a freshman chemical engineering major from New Madison, OH, received a check for $100, a citation and her name on a plaque in honor of her essay "Stories: The World in Which Our Souls Reside." The guidelines asked entrants to relate their thoughts to The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien's novel on the Vietnam War and the focus of Steuben Read Express and its first community reading project.

The Cunningham is named for Walter B. Cunningham, III, a 1956 Tri-State business administration graduate who funded an endowment to encourage thoughtful reading and writing in Steuben County, IN.