Yvette La Pierre is 2007-08 Merrifield Competition winner Yvette La Pierre, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Teaching and Learning, has won the 2007-08 Merrifield Competition. Named in honor of Webster Merrifield, UND’s first University librarian and president of the University from 1892 to 1909, the Merrifield Competition awards a $1,500 scholarship and recognizes outstanding student research using historic documents from the Chester Fritz Library’s Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections. A generous grant from the UND Alumni Association and Foundation enables the library to hold this annual competition. A five-member jury reviewed the research papers submitted for the 2007-08 Competition. Jury members included Cindy Anderson, nursing; Hans Broedel, history; Curt Hanson, Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections; Sherryl Houdek, educational leadership; and Gregory Vandeberg, geography. The jury judged the papers on quality of research, clarity of thesis and conclusion, writing skill, and the investigation of primary sources. La Pierre’s winning paper, “Grand Forks College: 1891 to 1911,” examined a variety of documents related to the college and placed this history within larger developments in higher education in this time frame. La Pierre graduated with degrees in English literature and environmental studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She also earned a master’s degree in science journalism from the University of Missouri at Columbia. She is the author of five nonfiction books for young readers, articles for adults and children, and guide books to national parks and historic sites. La Pierre is the co-director of the Writers Conference in Children’s Literature held each year at UND. She lives in Grand Forks with her husband Steve Finney, a Norwegian instructor at UND, and their two daughters, Grace and Camille. -- Curt Hanson, Department of Special Collections, Chester Fritz Library, curthanson@mail.und.edu, 7-4626