The Ayn Rand Institute is sponsoring some incredible scholarships in relation to Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. This is an essay scholarship with several questions to choose from. Each year, multiple winners are selected: 1 first-prize winner ($10,000), 3 second-prize winners ($2,000), 5 third-prize winners ($1,000), 20 finalists ($100), and 20 semifinalists ($50).

This is an annual essay contest for 11th and 12th graders. This year’s essay topics include the following:

1. The conventional view is that in life one can either achieve practical success or be moral, but not both. What view of this relation do you think emerges in The Fountainhead? What is the novel’s conception of success? Of morality? Explain by reference to characters and events of the story.

2. For each of the following quotations from The Fountainhead, explain its meaning in the story and its wider significance.

a. Gail Wynand (to Howard Roark): “There’s a particular kind of people that I despise. Those who seek some sort of a higher purpose or ‘universal goal,’ who don’t know what to live for, who moan that they must ‘find themselves.’” (Part IV, Chapter 5)

b. Peter Keating (to Dominique Francon): “I’d rather you’d express an opinion, God damn it, just once!” (Part III, Chapter 2)

c. Howard Roark (to Ellsworth Toohey): “But I don’t think of you.” (Part II, Chapter 15)

3. In Roark’s courtroom speech, he discusses the conflicts of the creator versus the second-hander and of egoism versus altruism. What is the nature of these conflicts and the relationship between the creator and egoism and between the second-hander and altruism? How do characters and events of The Fountainhead dramatize these conflicts and relationships? Explain.

According to the website, essays will be judged on a variety of factors—style, content, organization, and logic. Applications and essays can be submitted online or at the following address:

The Fountainhead Essay Contest, Dept. W
The Ayn Rand Institute
P.O. Box 57044
Irvine, CA 92619-7044

Biennially, The Independent Institute sponsors the Oliver W. Garvey Fellowship in honor of the reknown educator and economist Oliver W. Garvey. The mission of this institute is to, “transcend the all-too-common politicization and superficiality of public policy research and debate, redefine the debate over public issues, and foster new and effective directions for government reform.” For students who are like-minded and motivated to help the institute “foster new and effective directions” and learn from other independent thinkers, this is an ideal opportunity.

The winner of this fellowship will receive $10,000. In addition, 5 other fellowships will be granted to junior level faculty members and students. These awards range from $5,000 to $1,000.

Critical thinkers who are concerned with the topics of personal liberty and responsibility are encourage to participate. To enter, you must answer the following question, which is also posted on The Independent Institute’s website:

“Is foreign aid the solution to global poverty?”

A 2005 United Nations report called for a doubling of foreign aid to poor countries as the means to reduce poverty. Yet the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a for-profit microloan bank and its founder, an apparent vindication of the ideas of Peter T. Bauer, Henry Hazlitt, Deepak Lal, and others. As Bauer wrote, “Development aid, far from being necessary to rescue poor societies from a vicious circle of poverty, is far more likely to keep them in that state.…Emergence from poverty requires effort, firmly established property rights, and productive investment.”

Further guidelines can be found on the organizations website by clicking here. The deadline for this fellowship varies each year; as such, it is best to confirm the deadline with the organization.

Direct inquiries to the following address:

Carl P. Close
Academic Affairs Director
The Independent Institute
100 Swan Way, Oakland, CA 94621-1428
Phone: 510-632-1366
Fax: 510-568-6040