News Release

Seven prizes have been awarded in the 2007 Student Book Collecting Contest sponsored by the Friends of the Johns Hopkins University Libraries. Begun in 1993, the contest recognizes the love of books and the delight in shaping a thoughtful and focused book collection. The competition includes a graduate and undergraduate division.

Open to all undergraduate or graduate students enrolled in a degree program at Johns Hopkins, this year's contest attracted 17 entries. Participants wrote essays describing how and why their collections were assembled and submitted bibliographies of up to 50 titles. Cash awards of $1,000 and $500 were awarded to first- and second-place winners, and $250 went to honorable mentions. Two students tied for first place in the graduate category.

Priya Bhanu won first prize in the undergraduate category for her collection of Indian literature, Quest for an Indian Heritage. Bhanu is a sophomore from San Carlos, Calif., who is pursuing a double degree in international relations and East Asian studies in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.

Brendan DeTemple and Thomas Dechand shared first place honors in the graduate student category. DeTemple, a Ph.D. candidate from Baltimore in the Whiting School of Engineering's geography and environmental engineering program, won for Native Orchids of North America, a reference collection for locating and photographing native orchids. Dechand's Masters of Incompletion: S.T. Coleridge and Charles Peirce includes primary and secondary texts by both authors. Dechand, of Fort Collins, Colo., is pursing a Ph.D. in intellectual history in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.

Elysha Chang, a sophomore from McLean, Va., majoring in English and economics, won second place in the undergraduate category for her entry, Coming of Age with Scout, Tom Jones, and Other Literary Figures, a collection of novels examining the formative years of the characters. Joseph F. Connolly III, of Belle Isle, Fla., a first-year student in the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, won second place in the graduate division for his collection on Ireland titled The Green, White and Orange Collection.

Senior Jannie Lo of San Francisco won honorable mention in the undergraduate division for "A Spiritual Journey: "When the Student is Ready, the Teacher Will Appear," a collection inspired by a high school class on world religions. Lo is completing her bachelor's degree in piano performance at the Peabody Conservatory. Scott Mayausky of Fredericksburg, Va., a first-year graduate student in the Krieger School's master's in government program, was awarded honorable mention in the graduate division. Mayausky's collection on the lives and ideas of modern political thinkers and leaders, all inscribed by the authors, is titled The Hands of History.

In addition to the cash awards, winners receive a one-year honorary membership in the Friends of the Johns Hopkins Libraries. Selections from the winner's collections are on display on the main level of the university's Milton S. Eisenhower Library at 3400 North Charles St. through the end of May.