Germany Close-Up's first Alumni Essay Writing Contest took place in March-April 2009. A jury of seven including Ms. Petra Stöckl, Department of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Gerd Knischewski, Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, Prof. Dr. Atina Grossmann, Professor for European and German History at the Cooper Union College New York and Academic Director of the Leo Baeck Summer University Ms. Anna Held, Executive Director of the Leo Baeck Summer University as well as Dr. Dagmar Pruin and Dr. Hermann Simon, the Director of the Centrum Judaicum foundation, selected the three winning essays out of the dozens submitted. The winners will be awarded their prizes in a ceremony at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Washington D.C. in September 2009.

Here you can see the three winning essays:

1st Prize: Hadas Cohen (Young Professionals with JCC, October 2008)
2nd Prize: Mary Gould and Rachel Silverman (Students with Brandeis, December 2008)
3rd Prize: Liz Foreman (Young Professionals, July - August 2008)