Any student whose progress in Workshop in Composition or ESL Workshop in Composition has been outstanding may be nominated by his or her teacher for the Koloc Award.
The Koloc Award is named in honor of long-time Director of Advising Fred Koloc. You can read about Fred, who had a profound impact on the lives of so many Pitt students. Established in 2000, the Koloc Award provides a student achievement award in the form of a gift certificate for The University Store. Teacher nominations should be submitted with the student’s anonymized essay following the End-of-Term-Review.
Recent graduate student judges of the award have compiled a list of criteria on which they base their selections of Koloc candidates’ writing. Award-winning essays often include the following:
• A creative approach to the subject
• New, unexpected perspectives
• Ideas about personal experience that relate to the larger world
• A willingness to experiment
• A sense of control over the arrangement of parts
• An ability to sustain thinking about a complex subject
• An awareness of audience
• Sentence level fluency and beauty
If you would like to compete, please open the contest submission instructions.
Find the list of Koloc Award winners below.
- 2025
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First Prize: Hasina Habib“Butterfly in Silence: To Hug Them One More Time”Teacher: Traci ConnorSecond Prize: Riya StrivastanaTeacher: Marylou GrammThird Prize: Fatema NazarTeacher: Lindsey WilliamsHonorable Mention: Yuncong CaiTeacher: Marylou GrammHonorable Mention: Ojasvi KediaTeacher: Marylou GrammHonorable Mention: Chen LiTeacher: Marylou GrammHonorable Mention: Anushka Mandal“Hacking Humanity”Teacher: Traci Connor
- 2024
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First Prize: Shreya Desai
Teacher: Lindsey Williams
First Prize: Lana Nader
Teacher: Traci Connor
First Prize: Ashley Yang
Teacher: Traci Connor
Honorable Mention: Angelie Canada
“History of a Cookie Press”
Teacher: Traci Connor
Honorable Mention: Irene Chung
Teacher: Bridgette Nofsinger
Honorable Mention: Hongyu Dong
Teacher: Megan Heise
Honorable Mention: Gianna Ferrara
“Hold Tight to Your Pieces of Gum”
Teacher: Traci Connor
Honorable Mention: Korosh Lasiang
Teacher: Jesse Barkin
Honorable Mention: Yue Zeng
“Sea of Desire”
Teacher: Traci Connor
- 2023
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First Prize: Jadeliah (Jade) Dahl
Teacher: Traci Connor
First Prize: Victoria Ding
“Solitary Reverie”
Teacher: Marylou Gramm
First Prize: Isabella Marshall
Teacher: Traci Connor
Honorable Mention: Molly Figas
Teacher: Traci Connor
Honorable Mention: Liam Flynn
Teacher: Traci Connor
Honorable Mention: Gongduo Huang
Teacher: Cristina D’Imperio
Honorable Mention: Alesia Rengle
Teacher: Amanda Sevilla
Honorable Mention: Yuting Tu
“Heroic Voice of the First-Generation”
Teacher: Marylou Gramm
Honorable Mention: Ellie Yang
Teacher: Traci Connor
- 2022
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First Prize: Bosi Hou
Teacher: Rachel Kaufman
First Prize: Shaoyi Liu
Teacher: Marylou Gramm
First Prize: Nathan Sulek
Teacher: Jonathan Callard
Honorable Mention: Uri Annon
Teacher: Traci Connor
Honorable Mention: Iyan Nekib
Teacher: Marylou Gramm
Honorable Mention: Isaiah Perine
Teacher: Marylou Gramm
Honorable Mention: Nghi Vo
“How Much Does a Haircut Cost?”
Teacher: Amanda Sevilla
Honorable Mention: Zhengyu Zhao
Teacher: Marylou Gramm
- 2021
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First Prize: Pinghong Ho
“To Know the Moon Means Loneliness”
Teacher: Norma Greco
First Prize: Kangying Zi
Teacher: Lynne Sunderman
First Prize: Minhal Khan
Teacher: Rachel Kaufman
Honorable Mention: Xinyi Luo
Teacher: Norma Greco
Honorable Mention: Zhiying Yao
“Rusty Cage and Sacred Thread”
Teacher: Lynne Sunderman
Honorable Mention: Grazzieli Rios Cordoni
Teacher: Marylou Gramm
Honorable Mention: Bridie Flanigan
Teacher: Nora Fussner
Honorable Mention: Alan Nephew
Teacher: Jonathan Callard
Honorable Mention: Zetian Ni
“Hide and Seek on a Summer Night”
Teacher: Jake Maynard
Honorable Mention: Sophia Koosha
Teacher: Jake Maynard
Honorable Mention: Suyan Liu
“Dumplings"
Teacher: Rachel Kaufman
- 2020
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First prize: Chanita Russell
"Who Truly Am I?"
Teacher: Jonathan CallardSecond prize: Maya Krishna
"Defining Kinship"
Teacher: Lynne SundermanThird prize: Tracey Hueston
"Growing Past Home"
Teacher: Angela FarkasFourth prize: Zhen Wu
"Talk with My Name"
Teacher: Renee PrymusFifth prize: Shan Gao
"Bitterness of My Foreign Life"
Teacher: Norma Greco - 2019
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First prize: Haeun Son
"(집Jib): Where Seulpeum is Sadness"
Teacher: Marylou GrammSecond prize: Richard Sun
"The Beach"
Teacher: Jonathan CallardThird prize: Manqing (Estella) Jin
"The Scared The Scarred"
Teacher: Marylou Gramm - 2018
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First prize: Longtau Liu
"Cooking Gingerly"
Teacher: Marylou GrammSecond prize: Linwen Ni
"Living on Mountains"
Teacher: Marylou GrammThird prize: Yuxuan Hu
"The Language of Memory"
Teacher: Marylou Gramm - 2017
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First prize: Michelle Soto-Fernandez,
"Bubbles"
Teacher: Katie HomarSecond prize: Siyuan Ren
“Do You Hear the Mermaids Cry?”
Teacher: Marylou GrammThird prize: Yanchen Ge
“A Dream under the Cover of Diaries”
Teacher: Marylou Gramm - 2016
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First Prize: Dieer Hu
“Broken Wings”
Teacher: Marylou GrammSecond Prize: Lauren Fish
“The Dreamer vs. The Pragmatist”
Teacher: Robin ClarkeThird Prize: Liqing Li
“Pandemonium”
Teacher: Robin ClarkeFourth Prize: Rachel Matyi
“Good Grief”
Teacher: Robin Clarke - 2015
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First Prize: Farah Iman Muhd Najib
“The Loss of My Lah”
Teacher: Marylou GrammSecond Prize: Chihao Sun
“Why Do We Talk Like a Book?”
Teacher: Marylou GrammThird Prize: SiLang Huang
“Walking on the Edge of the Knife”
Teacher: Marylou Gramm - 2014
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First Prize: Elijah Zeise
“Shit”
Teacher: Carrie HallSecond Prize: Hersh Jadhav
“My Linguistic Conundrum”
Teacher: Marylou GrammThird Prize: Wenjia Shi
“Beautiful and Dangerous: The Delicate Flowers”
Teacher: Marylou Gramm - 2013
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First Prize: Shuai Zhong
“Cantonese Mask”
Teacher: Marylou GrammFirst Prize: Kinga Cichowska
“The Power and Price of Silence”
Teacher: Tamar BernfeldSecond Prize: Bridget Zhang,
“My Home in the Quilt”
Teacher: Marylou GrammSecond Prize: Yuening Wang
“Funny Girl”
Teacher: Tamar BernfeldThird Prize: Yijia Cui
“The Sacrifice of the Beef Noodle Soup”
Teacher: Marylou GrammThird Prize: Tong Sun
“Swimming in the Confluence”
Teacher: Renee Prymus - 2012
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First Prize: Minting Yu
“Calling Fish”
Teacher: Marylou GrammSecond Prize: Qianran Liao
“The Locked Pointe Shoes”
Teacher: Marylou Gramm - 2011
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First Prize: Shanshan Li
“My White Night”
Teacher: Marylou GrammSecond Prize: Siqi Chen
“A Little Cake Defined”
Teacher Marylou Gramm - 2010
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First Prize: Qin Jiang
“Audacious Hopes, Grand Dreams”
Teacher: Marylou GrammSecond Prize: Elevyn Huang
“The Danger of the Life Player”
Teacher: Marylou Gramm