KSD students represent well in VFW essay contests
The Kellogg School District had three students place during two different VFW essay contests. Pictured (from left) are Tori Sheppard: KHS Government Teacher, Senior — Kameron Ulibarri: 3rd place Voice of Democracy, Senior — Sean Artis: 2nd place Voice of Democracy, VFW Post 1675 Post Commander Chris Marker, eighth-grader Deztiny Raiha: 1st place Patriot's Pen, Scott White: KMS English Teacher, Lance Pearson: KSD Superintendent.
Courtesy photo
KELLOGG — Two Kellogg High School students and one student from Kellogg Middle School were recently announced as top placers of two VFW essay competitions and advanced to the district levels of the competition.
KMS eighth-grade student Deztiny Raiha took first place in the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ Post 1675 Patriot’s Pen essay contest, and recently was named the district champion as well.
The Patriot’s Pen is a contest tailored specifically to middle school-aged students, this year centering on the topic “How can I be a good American?”
Each year more than 165,400 students in grades 6-8 enter the VFW’s Patriot’s Pen youth essay contest for a chance to win their share of more than $1.4 million in state and national awards.
With her win, Raiha’s essay will now move on to the state-level competition, where she could win up to $500.
So far she’s made $200 from her Post and District wins.
Should she win there, her essay moves on to Nationals, where the top 50% of all of the other state champions receive some sort of cash prize.
Each first place state winner receives a minimum of $500 at the national level, and the national first place winner wins $5,000.
The essay contest encourages young minds to examine America’s history, along with their own experiences in modern American society, by drafting a 300- to 400-word essay, expressing their views based on a patriotic theme chosen by the VFW Commander-in-Chief.
KHS seniors Sean Artis (first in Post, second in districts) and Kameron Ulibarri (second in Post, third in districts) participated in the annual Veterans of Foreign Wars’ Voice of Democracy essay contest.
Established in 1947, the Voice of Democracy audio-essay program provides high school students with the unique opportunity to express themselves in regard to a democratic and patriotic-themed recorded essay.
This year, the topic of the essay was “America: Where do we go from here?”
Both Artis and Ulibarri received cash prizes for their respective finishes.
Each year, nearly 64,500 9-12 grade students from across the country enter to win their share of more than $2.1 million in educational scholarships and incentives awarded through the program.
The national first place winner receives a $30,000 scholarship paid directly to the recipient’s American university, college or vocational/technical school.
A complete list of other national scholarships range from $1,000-$16,000, and the first-place winner from each VFW Department (state) wins a minimum scholarship of $1,000.
VFW Post 1675 Commander Chris Marker loves seeing the local success, but is hoping to see the participation numbers go up for the local post.
“I’m really happy with the entries we are getting, but I’d love to see more of them. We are seeing local kids win checks every year, but it’s only coming from one school,” Marker said. “We’d love to see some participation from our other schools in hopes of seeing more kids make some money and represent our community at the higher levels of competition.”