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Lincoln Takes "Triple Crown" at Commencement
Crediting a strong faith in God, who she says called her to Washington College, and  thankful for the encouragement of professors, friends and family who saw her through the painful process of completing her studies, Christine Reneé Lincoln was the triple crown winner at the College's commencement ceremonies in May.
The First Honor graduate with the highest grade point average in her class also won the highest recognition from the faculty, the George Washington Medal and Award, and the richest undergraduate literary prize in the nation, the Sophie Kerr Prize. Her winning collection of short stories, Sap Rising, is dedicated to her grandmother, who told her stories every night on the back porch of her Lutherville, MD, farmhouse. Roberta Lincoln died the day after Christine completed her thesis, but not before Christine had told her that it was she who had inspired her to be a writer.
The Washington Medal traditionally goes to the senior who shows the greatest promise of understanding and realizing in life and work the ideals of a liberal education. The annual Sophie Kerr Prize, worth $54,266 this year, recognizes the senior who demonstrates the best abilities and promise for future fulfillment in the field of literary endeavor. The 34-year-old single mother brought to her undergraduate experience the wisdom of maturity, the courage of faith, and the perspective of someone whose life has not been easy.
Having struggled with drugs, alcohol and depression during her teens and early twenties, Lincoln was working as a radiology technician in Baltimore when her son was born seriously ill. "I gave up everything--my home, my car, my job--to pay his medical bills and to take care of him for those first two years. It was the best thing that ever happened to me," she says in retrospect, because when her son Takii was well, she ditched her plans to become a radiologist and decided to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a writer.
"When I was in fourth grade, my teacher wrote on my paper, 'Chris, you are a writer!' and I believed it," Lincoln recalls. "I knew it was true. But in the 1970s there weren't too many black female writers."
It took her 20 years to rediscover her true path. In 1996, she enrolled at Baltimore City Community College, and transferred to Washington College a year later.
Driven to learn and to grow as a writer and as an individual, Lincoln accomplished much in her three years at Washington College. She mobilized the campus community on diversity issues, submitting a campus racial climate report to the administration and founding the Center for the Study of Black Culture to help minority students and children in the community take pride in their history. With funding from the Society of Junior Fellows, Lincoln traveled twice to South Africa to investigate domestic violence and other cultural issues.
Meanwhile, she was crafting short stories that explore the African American experience. Robert Mooney, Director of the O'Neill Literary House who served as her thesis adviser, describes her as "a true storyteller, a natural, one mindful of the past, who carries it forward to keep it alive."
Just a week before Commencement, Lincoln had learned that she had been accepted into the graduate program in African literature at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. While working toward her doctorate at South Africa's most distinguished university, she also intends to establish a creative writing program for teenagers who have been traumatized by violence.
Back in early May, she didn't know how she was going to finance those plans. Two weeks later, she had a check for $54,266 in hand.
"I feel so blessed," Lincoln said. "So mightily blessed."
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