ARHS Senior Wins Harriet Beecher Stowe Prize

The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center has selected ARHS senior Tess Domb-Sadof as one of two recipients of the Student Stowe Prize for 2012, which recognizes outstanding writing by U.S. students that motivates action for positive social change.

Domb-Sadof’s winning entry took on the subject of bullying.  Her editorial, “Young Witnesses to Bullying Must Be Part of Solution,” appeared in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.  Domb-Sadof argues that bullying is not just between bully and victim, and that those who witness bullying make a choice to ignore it or intervene.  “I am committed to using dialogue to build a community where individuals take responsibility to acknowledge, address and respond to injustice,” says Domb-Sadof.  In addition to her writing, Domb-Sadof formed the first-ever School Climate Group at her high school to fight bullying and create a safe environment for all.

The two student winners will be honored at the Stowe Center’s Big Tent Celebration on June 5, 2012. Annette Gordon-Reed, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in History for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, will present the award, which includes a $2,500 cash prize to Hannah Morgan, the college winner. Former Connecticut State Senator Biagio “Billy” Ciotto will present the award and the $1,000 cash prize to Tess Domb-Sadof, the high school winner. The cash awards are funded by the Stowe Center.

The winning entries were chosen from submissions from high school and college students throughout the country.  The panel of judges included Dr. Eugene Leach, Trinity College; Renwick Griswold, University of Hartford; Elizabeth Devine, Hall High School, West Hartford, CT; and Dr. William Silva, Lewis S. Mills School, Burlington, CT.

Harriet Beecher Stowe recognized the injustice of slavery and was compelled to take pen to paper and write Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  The Student Stowe Prize winners carry on Stowe’s work by fighting for social justice in our time.  The prize will be awarded every other year, alternating with the Harriet Beecher Stowe Prize for Writing for Social Justice.  Both prizes are integral to the Stowe Center’s mission to inspire social justice and positive change.

For Domb-Sadof, the Student Stowe Prize follows an Anti-Bullying Scholarship from the Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover Foundation that was awarded earlier this year.  She will attend Columbia University in the fall.