Building Bridges Between the Humanities and the Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences
"Verily the works and words of those gone before us have become instances and examples to [folk] of our modern day." -- The Arabian Nights, Translated by Sir Richard Burton (1850)
This photo shows Leander James McCormick Haynes (left), Carol Andreae Haynes (center), and their youngest daughter, Linda Lee Haynes (right) at her graduation from Stephens College in June 1958. (Photo Credit: Haynes Family Archive)
Biographical Sketch of Leander James McCormick Haynes (1898-1968)
This annual award has been created in honor of the donor's maternal grandfather, Leander James McCormick Haynes. Mr. Haynes (a lateral descendant of Cyrus McCormick, the inventor of the mechanical reaper) was born near Bluff City, Kentucky, which had been founded by his grandfather, Stark Dupay Haynes, shortly after the Civil War. After serving with the First American Expeditionary Force in France during World War I, Mr. Haynes became a well-known entrepreneur and a highly respected member of the business community in Evansville, Indiana, where he and his wife, Carol Andreae Haynes (1901-1990), raised their five daughters. A lifelong enthusiasm for learning motivated him to enroll all five of his daughters – including the donor's mother, Linda Lee Haynes – at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, where they earned their college degrees in a broad-based curriculum that embraced the fine arts, humanities, and social sciences. The Hayneses' grandchildren have followed in their mothers' footsteps by earning bachelor's, master's, and professional degrees from Big Ten and Ivy League universities.
Description of the Humanities Book Prize
Adapted from Chapter VI, Section 5 of the ACES Honors Handbook
The Leander J. M. Haynes Humanities Book Prize is awarded to one ACES James Scholar each spring semester. The purpose of this award (named in honor of the donor's maternal grandfather) is to encourage ACES James Scholars to “think outside the box” and build intellectual bridges between the humanities and their own fields of study. The criteria for entering the award competition consist in authoring an original research paper of superior quality (at least 10 pages in length, double-spaced, in 12-point type) for a humanities course taken at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The paper must be authored by one student only, demonstrate a firm grasp of the subject matter, and address its topic in an engaging style. Furthermore, it is recommended that the paper should have received a grade of at least “A-” from the instructor of the course for which it was written.
For the purpose of this award, the humanities category embraces a broad spectrum of courses that are NOT limited to those fulfilling the campuswide Humanities General Education requirements. Research papers written for any course that contains a significant humanities-related component are eligible for this competition.
Papers are submitted to the ACES Student Development and Career Services Office by the first Monday in March of each year. The author's name should appear only on the paper's title page. Each paper is assigned a number to ensure an impartial decision by the judging committee. The winner of the competition will receive a scholarship prize. The winner must be enrolled in the ACES James Scholar Honors Program during the semester in which the competition takes place, and students are eligible to receive this award only once.
2007 Humanities Book Prize Winner
From left to right: Kim Wangen, 2007 Leander J. M. Haynes Humanities Book Prize winner; Rob Chappell, youngest grandson of Mr. Haynes; and Linda Haynes Chappell, youngest daughter of Mr. Haynes. (Photo Credit: Dr. Charles Olson)
The fourth annual Leander J. M. Haynes Humanities Book Prize competition took place in spring 2007. The winner was Kim Wangen, a member of the ACES James Scholar Class of 2009 majoring in Animal Sciences (Pre-Vet). Her paper is entitled “Symptoms Diagnosed and Treated: A Cure for Human Suffering in the Pure Land and Zen Buddhist Traditions." Kim has been an active member of the ACES James Scholar Honors Program since August 2006. She served as President of the James Scholar Media Team in 2007 and became Editorial Associate for ULTREIA in summer 2008.
2008 Humanities Book Prize Winner
The winner of the 2008 Leander J. M. Haynes Humanities Book Prize was Andrea Jakubas, who thus became one of only two students in ACES James Scholar history to win both the Carol Andreae Haynes Sophomore Achievement Award and the Humanities Book Prize. Andrea's award-winning essay chronicled her visit to the Dominican Republic on an ACES 298 study tour in summer 2007. Her essay coveed many aspects of the agricultural, consumer, and environmental issues facing the Dominican Republic today. Since then, Andrea has served as the JSMT's Student Website Consultant (2008) and as its Secretary/Vice-President Internal (2009).
Andrea enjoys a cruise on Lake Michigan's Chicago shoreline. (Photo Credit: Andrea Jakubas)
2009 Humanities Book Prize Winner
The winner of the sixth annual Humanities Book Prize competition was Jessica Sweet, who graduated from the University of Illinois in May 2009 as an ACES James Scholar and a Chancellor's Scholar. Jessica's prize-winning paper dealt with the sociological aspects of dormitory life on the Urbana campus and compared students' experiences from the 1940s, 1970s, and 2000s to survey trends and developments in student housing across the generations. Jessica has been accepted into veterinary school and will begin her studies for the D.V.M. degree n fall 2009 at the University of Missouri in Columbia.
Jessica posed for this photo overlooking the caldera of the Mt. Pululagua volcano near Quita, Ecuador. She had traveled there in summer 2008 on a study tour arranged through the Campus Honors Program. (Photo Credit: Jessica Sweet)
