Student Opportunities

The First-Year Writing Conference

Held near the end of each semester in Bessey Hall, the First-Year Writing Conference is a celebration of writing and composition that provides an opportunity for FYW students to share the work they composed over the semester to a broader audience, including other FYW students. Most of the presented work comes from remix projects from WRA 101 or WRA 195H (videos, posters, podcasts, and more) or from presentations based on student papers produced through the other class projects.

Conference presenters, all FYW students, share their work, talk about how they authored the projects, and answer audience questions. The conference is attended by other FYW students and instructors, and in spring, often by other invited guests—MSU faculty and administrators from other departments, and local high school students and their teachers, who come to learn more about writing and college life.

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Note: The Anderson and Yoshimori Awards are not being awarded in the 2026-2027 academic year.

The Anderson Award

The David D. Anderson Award for the Best Essay in First-Year Writing at MSU was established in honor of David D. Anderson’s lifelong commitment to education and excellence as a scholar and a teacher. The award gives a first-place designation to two student essays per year (one from each semester), and several Honorable mentions. As specific in the gift, student essays are nominated by “professors based on excellence in writing a paper as part of the normal course assignments, so if you are interested, please talk with your professor about this opportunity, and the winners are chosen by a committee of FYW instructors. Each first-place winner receives a $200 scholarship, and is honored at the annual College of Arts and Letters spring convocation. The deadline for submission of a paper is always the third Friday of the following term.

The Yoshimori Award

Named in honor of Dorothy Yoshimori, a former MSU graduate student who did outstanding work in American cultural studies, the annual Yoshimori Award is given to an undergraduate student whose multi-modal work in a first-year writing class has been superior. In honor of the award’s namesake, the winning entry must also be about American culture, loosely defined. One award is given each year, along with several Honorable Mentions.  As with the Anderson Award, Yoshimori contenders must be nominated by their First-Year Writing instructors. Each first-place winner receives a $200 award, though since group projects are eligible for this award, the prize money may be divided among each of the group members. 

Because there is only one Yoshimori award is given per year, the deadline is at the end of the spring semester. Instructors may nominate one student per course section for this award, and they may also serve on the faculty-led Yoshimori Award Committee that evaluates the entries.

For more information about the Anderson and Yoshimori Awards, contact David Medei, Associate Director of First-Year Writing (medeidav@msu.edu) or Bree Straayer, Associate Director of First-Year Writing (bstraay@msu.edu).