The Camden Conference has awarded the university/college level Bill Taylor Awards to two students for their essays related to the 2020 Camden Conference, The Media Revolution: Changing the World. Bill Taylor, a long-time supporter of the Conference, created this award in 2014 to promote student research in support of his strong interest in education.

The Bill Taylor Award essay contest was highly competitive this year and the winners reflect a progressive engagement with international affairs among Maine university students, according to the Conference, in a news release.

Education programs of the Camden Conference are designed to promote knowledge, perspectives, and dialogue opportunities on world affairs with high school and college educators and their students. Several Maine high schools and colleges offer academic courses based on the annual Conference topic. Twenty percent of the nearly 1300 Conference attendees are high school and college students who receive Camden Conference scholarship funding to defray their registration cost. The students who enter the essay contest do not have to be enrolled in a Camden Conference course, but they do have to attend the Conference.

The winners of the essay contest are: Tracy Pinkham of University of Maine at Augusta, Ellsworth Center with her essay entitled “Internet Regulation Recommendations in the Age of Disinformation” and Celena Zacchai of University of Maine at Augusta, Rockland Center with her essay entitled “Censorship, Subjugation, or Regulation: The Challenges of New Media on Free Speech and Independent Thought.”.

“The Conference congratulates our winners,” said the Conference.

The winning essays are posted on the Conference website: www.camdenconference.org.

The mission of the Camden Conference is to foster informed discourse on world issues. For more information, visit www.camdenconference.org, email info@camdenconference.org, or call 207-236-1034.