All graduating Ashbrook Scholars are required to write a Statesmanship Thesis during their final year as a Scholar. The best of these theses are given the Charles Parton Award, named in honor of the former director of the Ashbrook Center who inspired the creation of the Statesmanship Thesis program. The following are past winners of this honor:

• 2008

  Moral Beauty's Divine Center: Jonathan Edwards and the Necessity of God in Ethics (pdf)
  by Adam Carrington

• 2007

  A Two Horse Race: An Explanation of The Virginian's Natural Equality Based on Man's Faculty of Reason and Sentiment of Pity (pdf)
  by Clint Leibolt

  Abraham Lincoln's Understanding of the Nature of the Union: Secession, Slavery and the Philosophical Cause (pdf)
  by Jason Stevens

• 2006

  "The Hands of a Healer": J.R.R. Tolkien's Understanding of Kingship (pdf)
  by Lauren Calco

  "The Dictates of Conscience": The Debate over Religious Liberty in Revolutionary Virginia (pdf)
  by Deborah O'Malley

• 2005

  Improvisation and Self-Emancipation in the Novels of Ralph Ellison (pdf)
  by Carolyn Garris

• 2004

  The Thought of Sayyid Qutb: Radical Islam's Philosophical Foundations (pdf)
  by Luke Loboda

Each semester, the Ashbrook Scholars may submit essays for consideration for the Taylor Excellence in Writing Award. The selection criteria for the Taylor Award are quality of thought, logic of argument, felicity of style, and mastery of grammar and diction. The authors of the selected essays each receive the Taylor Excellence in Writing Award with its cash award of $100-$400 for each essay. Each summer, the winning essays from the previous fall and spring semesters are published in Res Publica. Below you will find the essays from the most recent edition of Res Publica.

• Learning to be Still by Jason Stevens
• Too Close to the Fire by Clint Leibolt
• Out of Place by Adam Carrington
• Why We Fight by Samantha Vajskop
• Forever My Shadow, Forever My Friend by Valentina Wysocki
• Looking Failure in the Face by James Kresge
• Dad by Jason Stevens
• The Power of College by Angie Cook
• Tumbleweeds by Clint Leibolt
• Summer, Old Trail by Stacey Sadowski
• Picking at My Sister's Bones by Danae Leali
• A Glorified Piece of Paper by Samuel Ball
• Family Heirlooms by Melissa Miser
• ICU by Jason Stevens
• The Prudence of Solomon by Clint Leibolt