The Battin-Lester Essay Award competition is intended to promote campus and community discussion about civic engagement, corporate responsibility, and nurturing an inclusive Wichita community. Winners are selected by a committee of reviewers and announced in March. For more information and a link to apply, see “How to Apply” below.

Award: Up to $2,500 for the top essay. Up to $1,000 for a second place essay.

  • Submission Deadline: MARCH 1st.
  • Eligibility: Undergraduate students enrolled full or part-time at Wichita State University
  • Contact: Andrew Myers, Director of Scholarships and Student Services, Cohen Honors College at andrew.myers@wichita.edu. 

The Legacy of E.T. Battin and H.D. Lester

The Battin-Lester Corporate Responsibility Outstanding Essay Competition provides funding for students who submit an essay on a pre-determined topic each year. Topics are related to the areas of corporate responsibility, civic engagement, and nurturing an inclusive Wichita community.

This award was created to stimulate the interest of the creative rainbow of Wichita residents in becoming active citizens, and particularly to help the business community and its leaders to remember that with increased privilege, wealth, and power come greater responsibilities for community interests beyond self-interests or business profits, which both E.T. Battin and H.D. Lester personified in their lives.

John Young, a 1965 Wichita State University history and political science major, established this fund in 2020, with his wife Kathleen Moran. The fund is in memory of his maternal great-grandfather, E.T. Battin and his maternal grandfather, H.D. Lester.

 

How to Apply

Select one essay prompt from the following options and upload your essay as a PDF through the application form link below:

A) How should we be cultivating active civic engagement behaviors in Wichita’s educational system? 
or
B) From a historical and a present-day perspective, how has the Wichita business leadership community engaged in corporate responsibility? And what action steps are needed for further engagement in corporate responsibility?

Essay Requirements:

  • Essays should be a substantial piece of writing that articulates a clear position with evidence, including qualitative or quantitative data when needed.
  • Essays should be prepared and edited ahead of submission.
  • Demonstrates understanding of standard grammar and style.
  • Demonstrates substantive and/or original thinking.
  • Essays will be submitted in PDF format and attached within the application.

APPLY HERE. If you link to the application from within the WSU system, your application information will be saved as you work. The application will open up where you left off.

Submission Deadline: MARCH 1st.

  • Eligibility: Undergraduate students enrolled full or part-time at Wichita State University
  • Award: Up to $2,500 for the top essay. Up to $1,000 for a second place essay.
  • Contact: Andrew Myers, Director of Scholarships and Student Services, Cohen Honors College at andrew.myers@wichita.edu. 

Additional Fund Guidelines:

  1. No recipient will be excluded from consideration on the basis of age, ancestry, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, national origin, political affiliation, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or status as a veteran. 
  2. Recipients will be expected to present to individual classes or community events that reflect diversity and are representative of the Wichita population. Additionally, students will present their papers at one or more public meetings involving the Wichita business and civic leadership community.
  3. These funds are one-time awards.

Compensation: Up to $2,500 for top essay. Up to $1,000 for second place essay.
Contact: Andrew Myers, Director of Scholarships and Student Services, Cohen Honors College at andrew.myers@wichita.edu. 

2022 - 2023 Recipient

Rija Zaheer Nazir

Major: Political Science

Classification: Senior

 
battin

E.T. Battin

E.T. Battin was born in 1852 and died in Wichita in 1931. From ages 14 to 26 he was his birth family’s breadwinner because his father was captured as a Union soldier who became ill in a rebel prison, and came home to die. E.T. Battin moved west to Kansas, Oklahoma Indian territory and Texas as a cowboy driving cattle north. When Oklahoma opened to white settlers, E.T. started hardware stores to provide them with the tools they needed for farming and ranching, and also continued his involvement in the cattle industry. He got involved in a grain storage business, built hardware stores in Wichita and elsewhere, a paint business, the Martin Metal business, and real estate investments. He helped organize the National Bank of Wichita, which became Kansas’ largest bank as the 4th National and is now part of Bank of America.

E.T. Battin had great faith in Wichita. He was elected to the City Commission in 1911 and served for four years as its commissioner of finance. He was largely responsible for the city’s excellent system of paying off bond issues yearly. In 1917, the Commission adopted the Commission-City Manager form of government, and E.T. was prevailed upon to become Wichita’s first City Manager until a professional could be hired, but did so as a volunteer. He was also instrumental in the establishment of Wesley Hospital and a leader in the First Methodist Episcopal Church.

E.T. Battin's daughter, Edna, met H.D. Lester on a pleasure boat trip up the Hudson River from NYC to West Point. Edna and H.D. married soon after. 

 

 

 

 
lester

H.D. Lester

Lester grew up on his family’s farm in Haddock, Georgia, which they had owned since 1790. He was working for a Florida railroad when he met Edna Battin. He moved to Wichita and worked in a coal company, organized and ran an insurance company, and then worked his way up within the 4th National Bank, eventually serving as its Vice President and was also involved in several Federal Savings and Loan businesses. He owned several Wichita-area farms and kept up the Georgia estate with great affection and regular visits.

H.D. Lester was active in Wichita civic leadership for 43 years. He served as City Clerk from 1915 to 1922, as an enthusiastic expander of Wichita’s park system, was a member of its Park Board for 17 years, was hired as its City Manager, and served as a City Commissioner from 1953 to 1957, including a term as Wichita’s Mayor.