The Fourteenth Annual Thomas Jefferson Lecture was held at the University of Tennessee Space Institute Auditorium on April 22, 2010. As part of the Thomas Jefferson Day at UTSI, students from surrounding high schools were given an opportunity to participate in an essay contest in conjunction with the lecture. The topic of the essay contest was “Jefferson’s Relationship with John and Abigail Adams.”

This year there were joint first place winners. Sarah Hall, a junior at Franklin County High School in Winchester won a $300 joint first place prize. She is the daughter of Mickey and Melissa Hall of Estill Springs, Tennessee.

LeAnne Kuhns, a junior at Lincoln County High School in Fayetteville, Tennessee, also won $300 joint first place for her essay. LeAnne is the daughter of Brenda Kuhns of Fayetteville, Tennessee.

In addition to the students receiving a cash prize, $500 was given to each school for academic program development. Cindy Calloway, English teacher at Franklin County High School accepted the award on behalf of the school, and Theresa Patton, Social Studies Chair, accepted the award for Lincoln County High School.

Richard A. Samuelson, the guest speaker at the Thomas Jefferson Lecture, spoke on “Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and the American Future.” He is assistant professor of history at California State University, San Bernardino and is currently the Garwood Visiting Fellow in the James Madison Program at Princeton University. Samuelson has held fellowships at numerous colleges and universities throughout the world.

Attendees arriving early for the event had the pleasure of listening to the music of the Tullahoma High School Flute Trio, Megan McKinney, Kelia Washington and Demetrius Seay.

The Thomas Jefferson Lectures are funded by an anonymous donor.