Harvard Essay Competition

Posted: 21/03/2025

Elina Q recently entered the Harvard Crimson Global Essay Competition (HCGEC), and after securing a place in the finals, achieved second place in the Creative category.

Her essay, “When we turned into numbers,” explored through a first-person narrative how life changes when a law of nature, that of genetic variation, no longer applies. Her protagonist, at first, bound by her appreciation for personhood and identity, rejects the idea of adhering to the norm, seeing others as victims of conformity. But soon conformity becomes law, and her protagonist loses the last vestiges of herself, showing the reader how daunting and unitary the world could be without any individuality.