Lauren MacDonnell is this year’s winner of McIntire’s Madhu Chopra Writing Contest.
At the Commerce School, where spreadsheets and strategy decks dominate, McIntire’s Madhu Chopra Writing Contest inspires the creation of satire, poetry, and deeply personal stories. Each year, Commerce students are invited to submit original creative work, writing, or multimedia that reflects, even indirectly, on business and their experience at McIntire and UVA.
The contest honors a personal legacy, having been established in memory of Madhu Chopra (McIntire ’89), a dedicated Commerce student who tragically passed in 1988. Her family endowed both the contest and a separate student scholarship fund in her name, ensuring that Madhu’s spirit of intellectual curiosity continues to shape the community she loved. The contest is administered by a committee chaired by Professor Marcia Pentz and Director of Student Success Analytics and Assessment Ben Raske, with Professor Kiera Allison, Assistant Director of Student Engagement and Global Programs Kate O’Donnell, and Operations and Analytics Associate Samantha Domoracki Scharf.
This year, the strength of the submissions pushed judges to award not one, but two rare honorable mentions, a sign of how strong the pool of submissions had become.
The Winner: Lauren MacDonnell
Taking top honors was Lauren MacDonnell, whose entry, “Jargon Memo,” left the judges laughing out loud. Rendered in perfect memo format, the piece uses pastiche, satire, and allegory to skewer business jargon. According to Pentz, the piece was packed “with communication easter eggs that reward careful reading,” from the bravura “DEMERGER DIALOGUE TRANSCRIPT” exhibit to extended puns like “Bread-Room Ready Deliverables” and the parting reminder that “There’s no time for loafing around, I need the dough (I’m quite the breadwinner), but I’m aiming for the upper crust.”
The inspiration was personal to Lauren’s McIntire experience. “The business world can feel unapproachable due to acronyms galore and endless buzzwords. I see this as an outdated entry barrier,” she says. “My Foundations of Management Communication class with the wonderful Professor Marcia Pentz was the first time we had a genuine conversation about the origin and usage of jargon. As incoming business students, my peers and I expressed frustration with this corporate slang.”
The writing itself posed its own challenges. “The biggest challenge was balancing a typical memo format—concise, dry, non-expressive—with poetry conventions—complex, personal, fun!” Lauren says. “When someone hears ‘business memo,’ they definitely don’t think, ‘Ah yes, peak creative writing!’ But in writing this piece, I realized there’s a certain poetry to jargon: You can construct whatever meaning you want and play around with words.”
As a second-year with only three weeks of memo writing experience, Lauren entered at Pentz’s suggestion: “Professor Pentz encouraged me to enter the Madhu Chopra writing contest, and I’m so glad she did!” she says. Her sharp skewering of corporate language quickly won over the judges.
For Lauren, who is intrigued by the creative side of business, the piece reflects something larger about how she sees her education. She plans to pursue an English major alongside her Commerce degree and sees no contradiction there. “There’s a misconception that the business world has no room for liberal arts, but quite the opposite is true,” she says. “Both English and business demand the ability to synthesize research, communicate ideas effectively, and know your audience.”
Other Standout Entries
While Lauren’s piece leaned into satire, other finalists explored themes of identity, resilience, and legacy. Second-year Maya Naim’s poem “I am from what holds” moved the committee with its elegant portrayal of family resilience, drawing on vivid imagery of “olive trees growing between gunfire” and the quiet heroism of immigrant labor. Fourth-year Tyler Robinson’s “What We Carry Forward: McIntire and the Meaning of UVA” offered poignant reflections on growth and duty, culminating in the recognition that a place’s true legacy lies not in what it gives you while you’re there, “but what it expects of you after you leave.”
Honorable mentions went to third-year students Hamdael Eslaquit for “The Last Line Item” and Erick Machado for “Synergy,” both of which explored family dynamics and the power of business vernacular with impressive craft.
Together, these pieces show that even in a world of memos and metrics, the ability to play with language and mean something remains essential. The Chopra family’s generosity has made that reminder possible, and this year’s student entries delivered fine examples worthy of recognition.
