Iacoviello Wins $1,000 American Atheists Scholarship

by Leslie A. Zukor

David Iacoviello poses with his scholarship certificate

Congratulations to David Iacoviello, the 2010 American Atheists scholarship runner-up. Each year, American Atheists gives three prizes to nontheists who have distinguished themselves via their activism. In the past, the organization has given out a $2,000 Founders' Scholarship first prize, a $1,000 runner-up award, and a $1,000 Chinn Scholarship to an outstanding gay/lesbian atheist activist. However, there were no LGBT entrants this year, so American Atheists gave out two second prizes instead. The Secular Student Alliance has a history of producing scholarship winners, including current SSA board members, Hemant Mehta and Andrew Cederdahl, and former board member, Becky Robinson. The 2010 Founders' Scholarship went to Leslie A. Zukor. David Iacoviello and Andrew Choufrine were the runners-up. Zukor and Choufrine will be profiled in upcoming editions of the eMpirical.

As for David Iacoviello, he is a natural freethinker and has been inquisitive about religion since he was five. As a child, when a dear friend went to a Christian camp, David decided to tag along. Impressed by Iacoviello's questioning, the Pastor called home to praise the young attendee. However, David had his doubts about Christianity even at such a young age. "I saw straight through this belief system," he recalls. "[I] asked the questions a Pastor does not want to answer." Even though Iacoviello didn't believe in Jesus and never attended Bible camp again, he was still engaged in a search for the "right" religion. The next faith he tried - and ultimately discarded - was Judaism. Since David had maternal Jewish ancestors, he read the Old Testament to see if he identified with the faith. While he liked that the religion had no Savior, he could not accept God's vengeance. "In the Old Testament," Iacoviello explained, "the stories depict God very negatively, and I didn't think a God would possess those characteristics." By high school, he was an agnostic, though he didn't know the word at the time.

American Atheists scholarship certificate

For all of his questions about religion, David Iacoviello didn't identify as a non-believer until college. When he met his girlfriend, an atheist, David began to consider nontheism as a viable option. "I thought [atheism to be] silly at the time," he admits, but then he read The God Delusion. In his words, "that book set off the research." Iacoviello then read Sam Harris, took courses in the philosophy of religion, and read articles on StumbleUpon, all of which bolstered his newfound non-belief. As a result of the hostility toward atheism and to "spread the good news," David started an atheist club, the Society of American Youth Secularists, at his school, William Paterson University in New Jersey. His group's best attended event was a Darwin Day panel, where a biology professor, along with experts in fields such as anthropology, geology, and philosophy, discussed the impact and evidence for Darwin's theory of evolution. Iacoviello's panel drew 100 people and is now an annual event. In addition, preacher turned atheist Dan Barker came to speak, along with atheist comedian, Keith Lowell Jensen. David also spearheaded an event where people had to give secular reasons for making gay marriage illegal. This event drew widespread attention at his college.

While the club activism is impressive, it was through David Iacoviello's church-state separation advocacy that he ultimately distinguished himself. In the fall of 2009, he received an anonymous letter from a science teacher in Montville, New Jersey, a twenty-minute drive from William Paterson. The letter explained that the town's $796.72 publicly-funded nativity scene, along with its holiday decorations and menorah, violated the establishment clause of the Constitution. Wanting to fight against the entanglement of church and state and the endorsement of religion over non-religion, David entered into a dialogue with the Montville Board. The end result was that he was invited to a Montville Board meeting, where he stressed the unconstitutionality of the displays. While the looks of derision from the audience spoke volumes, he received a personal thank you from the science teacher who wrote the anonymous letter. After the Board Meeting, Iacoviello thought that the story was over. However, the next day, TV stations were interested in airing the controversy. In all, several articles were written on the issue, and David made four TV appearances, including a segment on CBS New York.

David (far right) with club members on Darwin Day

In addition to David's past activism, Iacoviello continues to make an impact for secularism. Not satisfied with the Montville Board's inaction, he contacted the ACLU about the city's actions. While the ACLU wouldn't take up the case about religious symbols on public property, since there were secular holiday displays - reindeers and wreaths - as well, it was very interested in challenging another of the city's violations of the Constitution. Through contacting the civil liberties organization, Iacoviello spearheaded ACLU action about Montville Board meetings, which open with a public prayer. The case is ongoing and is proof that he continues to dedicate himself to atheist activism, even after winning the award. As he says, "I plan to be…ready to stand up for the rights of the nonreligious wherever they are threatened, in or out of school." For all David's advocacy, the Secular Student Alliance is proud to congratulate Iacoviello for winning the American Atheists $1,000 scholarship.

Leslie A. Zukor is Secretary of the Secular Student Alliance's Board of Directors. Currently earning an Anthropology degree from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, Zukor aspires to a career in investigative journalism or wildlife photography.