The annual Corsair tradition celebrates the voices of incoming first-year students, sharing their personal narratives as they begin their journey at UMass Dartmouth
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UMass Dartmouth is excited to announce the winners of this year’s UMassD Believes Provost Writing Contest. Modeled after NPR’s This I Believe, the contest invites notable incoming students to share 500-word belief statements about what matters most to them. Members of the Class of 2029 wrote blog posts and connected with one another through thousands of comments—reflecting on their own values, learning from peers, and joining the conversation about student life at UMassD.
Submissions were reviewed through a competitive, anonymous selection process. We are proud to recognize the following students, whose essays were awarded first, second, and third place honors:
First place - "On Being a Good Writer" by Sophia Lemanski
First-year Psychology student from Montague, New Jersey
“I’ve come to believe that asking for help isn’t failing; it's being smart. It’s caring enough about your work to want it to grow. This belief doesn’t just apply to writing. It’s something I try to carry into everything I do.”
Second place - " How to Become a Feminist" by Mariana Trinidad Peñafiel Ide
First-year Communications student from Vitacura, Chile
“Being a feminist means admitting that the world is not fair. It is understanding that, just because you were born a woman, you will have to work harder to be seen, heard and respected. It is also acknowledging that there are millions of women you will not be able to save. It is accepting that there are so many girls who believe they are alone because they cannot hear the voices of those who fight for them, those who care about them.”
Third place - " Intelligence Isn’t Everything" by Hayley Mimoso
First-year Medical Laboratory Science student from Fairhaven, Massachusetts
“Even though I would like to become a doctor, I’m not doing it because I think I have to or because I think it makes me seem smart— I’m doing it because I want to and because I believe it will make me happy. My senior year of high school has taught me that life is too short to care about what other people think and to just do whatever makes you happy.”
UMassD Believes, formerly titled This We Believe, began in 2015 by Academic Affairs and Student Affairs to engage new students in UMass Dartmouth's values. Professor Meghan J. Fair has run the program since 2016.