Students win state-wide essay contest
By: Sue Quist 02/01/2009
Most middle school students are not in favor of homework, so I imagine some students grumbled when Stephanie Gwin, 8th grade language arts teacher at Northeast Middle School, gave an essay assignment near the end of November and said it was due before Thanksgiving. The students were instructed to write an essay responding to the following prompt: Education: American Dream or Public Crisis. It was a risky assignment for a teacher to give, considering the potential for criticism. But Gwin had a little secret, she would enter the essays in the Governor's Commission of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration statewide essay contest. She was confident in the instruction her students had received and the risk paid off; her students took both first and second place in the 8th grade essay contest.
The first place award went to Nicole Collins and second place went to Emily Anderson. Both girls are residents of the Camden Community. They went to Loring Elementary School and are currently at Northeast Middle School. The awards were presented by Sasha Cotton of YouthLink at the official Minnesota Statewide Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Below are the students' essays. A huge congratulations to Nicole and Emily. Thanks to Stepanie Gwin and all of the teachers who are working towards the goal of making education the American Dream.