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1) First of all, tell me a bit about the Institute and when it started and its mission statement.

Elan Journo: The Ayn Rand Institute is a nonprofit organization founded in 1985 with the goal of making more people aware of the books and ideas of Ayn Rand. ARI works to introduce young people to her novels, to support scholarship and research based on her ideas, and to promote the value of reason and the principles of rational self-interest, individual rights and laissez-faire capitalism to the widest possible audience.

2) I understand that you have several competitions. Could you tell our readers about them?

Marilee Dragsdahl: ARI sponsors annual essay contests for students in high school and college. To enter, a student submits an essay in response to questions drawn from Miss Rand's novels Anthem or The Fountainhead; the Anthem contest is open to 9th and 10th graders, and The Fountainhead, 11th and 12th graders. There is also a college-level essay contest—for which some high school seniors also qualify—focusing on Atlas Shrugged. Each year we send teachers contest flyers with the questions, rules, deadlines and instructions for entering—information that is also posted on our Web site, www.aynrand.org/contests/. The submitted essays are evaluated on their style, content and logical organization. A first-place winning essay is one that demonstrates a thoughtful engagement with the book and an outstanding grasp of its meaning.

In the 20-plus years since ARI started its first contest, the response from educators, and particularly from students, has been truly inspiring. We often hear from teachers who teach Ayn Rand's novels that their students really light up when they read the books. They are eager to discuss the story, the characters and the relevance of the theme to their own experience. Students also write to tell us that reading Ayn Rand—and the process of writing about her fiction for the essay contest—has opened their eyes to the world, and that they look at their friends, their own lives and plans for the future in a new and different light.

To give you a sense of the scale of the two high school contests: in the last academic year, more than 20,000 students competed for a total of $82,000 in prize money. Since the start of the contests, more than 175,000 students have taken part in one or both of the high school-level competitions. ARI's essay contests may well be the largest such educational competition in the United States.

3) Why does the work of Ayn Rand continue to influence people today?

Elan Journo: In a nutshell: her books present thrilling stories with profound themes. In each of her novels, Ayn Rand creates a distinctive fictional universe that readers are drawn into. The experience is such that they can't put the book down, because they're confronted with unique, larger-than-life characters and unpredictable yet irresistibly logical plots. The books leave a lasting impression on many readers, in part because Ayn Rand's heroes and the stories she tells challenge people's conception of right and wrong. For example, many readers ofAtlas Shrugged find themselves admiring, rooting for and shedding a tear for a hero such as Hank Rearden, a self-made industrialist. This, even though in today's world, businessmen are regarded as shady, if not utterly crooked, and contemptible because they pursue profit. Yet in the book, Miss Rand credibly presents productive businessmen as morally good.

Readers find themselves coming away from the story with a bracingly fresh, new perspective on the world. Her writings spark questions in a reader's mind that he's never thought to ask before, questions about his life, beliefs, goals, questions that are far-reaching in scope. That's because her novels not only challenge conventional ideas; the books are informed by her positive and substantive conception of morality.

4) Any Rand is known for her promulgation of "Productive achievement and reason" Are our schools teaching these ideas?

Elan Journo: I certainly think that schools should do so, because when these values are understood in concrete terms, we can see that they are twin motors of human progress. Where would we be without the scientific trail-blazers and the innovators who use their minds to create a new, more efficient way to do something and then offer their innovation for sale? Without them, we'd have no Internet, cell phones, computers, MRI scanners, aspirin, refrigerators, cars, electric lighting. The list goes on. Thanks to science and the application of technology across hundreds of industries, our standard of living has risen astoundingly. Schools are a means for transmitting the accumulated wisdom of our culture, and I think part of that job is to pass on a respect for productive achievement and science.

5) Tell us about some of the educational programs that you offer.

Marilee Dragsdahl: For teachers interested in using Ayn Rand's novels in the classroom, we offer suggested lesson plans and classroom activities, an online discussion board to share ideas, continuing education seminars, as well as a teacher's guide to the books. Many teachers told us that they wanted to teach the books, but that their schools lacked the funding to buy enough copies for an entire class. So, upon request, ARI sends such teachers enough copies of the novels, at no charge, to use in the classroom. Teachers from across North America have responded to our standing offer of free books. In the first five years since starting this program, we've distributed more than a million copies ofAnthem andThe Fountainhead.

Elan Journo: For students, we offer a range of educational resources on Ayn Rand's novels and works, including a Web site with historical and background information on her books and another site with the complete text of The Ayn Rand Lexicon. The Lexicon is a mini-encyclopedia containing statements of her views on issues as diverse as the Vietnam war, racism, moral virtue, drama, logic and economics. Obviously that Web site is meant not just for students, but for anyone curious about what Ayn Rand said about this or that issue. Beyond these resources, we also provide online video lectures and live lecture courses at our headquarters in Irvine, California.

Some years ago students came to us looking for undergraduate- and graduate-level courses on Ayn Rand's philosophy, which she called "Objectivism." The Institute started a program of teleconference seminars and lectures, presented by Rand scholars. That program grew into the Objectivist Academic Center, which offers a four-year sequence of undergraduate courses that students can take online and via teleconference, and that they can receive college credit for.

More and more college instructors are incorporating essays or books by Ayn Rand into their courses. On our professor outreach site, we offer bibliographic recommendations, suggested syllabi, desk copies and other materials. We also offer scholars writing on Rand's philosophy a number of resources, such as grants and referrals to other sources of funding.

6) What are you doing on college campuses across America?

Marilee Dragsdahl: Going back decades, to the days when Ayn Rand herself was a frequent speaker on college campuses, there have been independent clubs at universities across the country for students interested in her ideas. The Institute offers such campus clubs a wealth of educational materials, including taped lectures on Objectivism, books and speakers. We're in touch with about 100 such clubs today, and we have a dedicated section on our Web site for college students who want to join or start a campus club. 

7) Could you tell us about the most recent winners of your contests so that we can post them and acknowledge them publicly?

Marilee Dragsdahl: College student John DeWald, from London, England, is the most recent winner of our annualAtlas Shrugged essay contest, for which he received a prize of $10,000.

The following students have won this year's second and third prizes:
Second-prize winners ($2,000):
Ben O'Neill, Kambah, Australia
Garrett Gates, Brunswick, ME
Christian Tarsney, Minneapolis, MN
Third-prize winners ($1,000):
Brian St. Clair, San Diego, CA
Tzipora Henig, Toronto, ON, Canada
Justin Hack, Kingston, ON, Canada
Lisa Wang, Cambridge, MA
Margaret Kirkland, Ithaca, NY

8) Do you have a web site where people can get more information?
www.aynrandeducation.com

www.aynrandnovels.com

www.objectivistacademiccenter.org

Published February 4, 2008