呦乐园

Abolanle Dahunsi Wins 呦乐园鈥檚 Jim Murray Memorial Foundation Sports Writing Contest

Abolanle Dahunsi

VALDOSTA — Abolanle Dahunsi won first place in 呦乐园’s 2018 Jim Murray Sports Writing Contest. She will now go on to compete against top collegiate journalists from across the country for a chance to win one of five $5,000 national scholarships.

The Jim Murray Sports Writing Contest is funded by the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation, which was established in 1999 by Linda McCoy-Murray to perpetuate the legacy of Los Angeles Times Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist Jim Murray through a national essay competition for collegiate journalism students. The applicants are required to write a story in Murray’s style, which is remembered for its humor, hyperbole, and one-liners.

Dahunsi’s winning article focuses on how domestic violence in professional sports like the National Basketball Association and National Football League reflects poorly on masculinity.

“I chose that topic because I enjoy writing about how gender roles and sexuality in society are portrayed in the media, literature, workforce, etc.,” she shared. “Whenever I am given a topic, I try my hardest to relate it to gender and sexual identity.”  

Dahunsi is a member of 呦乐园’s National Council of Negro Women and serves as a senator in the Student Government Association. The Northwest Georgia chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women awarded her a scholarship in 2017.

Dahunsi expects to graduate in May 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in English. She hopes to continue her education at the graduate level, including a master’s degree and doctorate, and pursue a career as a literature teacher in a high school or college, as well as a possible service career as a member of a community board of education. She is the daughter of Juanita Thomas Dahunsi and Joseph Dahunsi of Marietta, Georgia.