Optimist International Essay Contest - The Essay Contest is sponsored by Optimist International to give young people the opportunity to write about their own opinions regarding the world in which they live. The approach can encompass a young person’s personal experience, the experience of their country or a more historical perspective. In additional to developing skills for written expression, participants also have the opportunity to win a college scholarship. Optimist International assigns a new topic each year and provides the rules and guidelines for holding this essay contest for students. The Northridge Optimist Club club conducts a local level of the contest in conjunction with Northridge schools. The winning contestant’s essay is then eligible to compete for scholarship awards with other student essays at the Optimist District (state) level.
Left to right: Ms. Thurman (teacher), Jade Bolton (honorable mention), Antoinette Leonard (third place), Kiara Moton (honorable mention), Shelby Leivas (first place), Nathan Snedigar (honorable mention), Dakota Higgins (second place). Nyomi Hall was also honorable mention, but was unable to attend the ceremony.
2015 Contest:
• Students in the Northridge High School ninth grade honors English class recently completed entries in the Optimist International Essay Contest, sponsored by Northridge Optimist Club. The topic of this year’s contest was “Optimism Should be a Priority”. An awards meeting was held during a pizza luncheon at the high school on Tuesday, March 24 to recognize the finalists. The winners were introduced by their teacher, Adina Thurman, who presented them with their awards. The first place award went to Shelby Leivas, second to Dakota Higgins, and third to Antoinette Leonard. They each received an Olympic style medallion (gold, silver and bronze), a certificate for their placing, an Essay Contest pin, and a $25 gift card. Certificates were also presented for Honorable Mention for Nyomi Hall (absent from the meeting), Kiara Moton, Jade Bolton, and Nathan Snedigar, along with an Essay Contest pin and a $10 gift card for each. Shelby’s winning essay will now compete statewide with other winning student essays for a chance at a $2500 scholarship from Optimist International. Northridge Optimist President Alan Schmidlapp also presented Ms. Thurman with a certificate of thanks. In addition to the students and teacher, there were eleven Optimist members, plus Northridge Schools Counselor Trish Engle in attendance. See more photos in the slide show below.
• Students in the Northridge High School ninth grade honors English class recently completed entries in the Optimist International Essay Contest, sponsored by Northridge Optimist Club. The topic of this year’s contest was “Optimism Should be a Priority”. An awards meeting was held during a pizza luncheon at the high school on Tuesday, March 24 to recognize the finalists. The winners were introduced by their teacher, Adina Thurman, who presented them with their awards. The first place award went to Shelby Leivas, second to Dakota Higgins, and third to Antoinette Leonard. They each received an Olympic style medallion (gold, silver and bronze), a certificate for their placing, an Essay Contest pin, and a $25 gift card. Certificates were also presented for Honorable Mention for Nyomi Hall (absent from the meeting), Kiara Moton, Jade Bolton, and Nathan Snedigar, along with an Essay Contest pin and a $10 gift card for each. Shelby’s winning essay will now compete statewide with other winning student essays for a chance at a $2500 scholarship from Optimist International. Northridge Optimist President Alan Schmidlapp also presented Ms. Thurman with a certificate of thanks. In addition to the students and teacher, there were eleven Optimist members, plus Northridge Schools Counselor Trish Engle in attendance. See more photos in the slide show below.
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• The members of the Northridge Optimist Club pass along their thanks to all of the students for their fine essays, to Northridge High School and staff for hosting the event, to the judges (Tina Rogal, Jennifer Schmidlappj, and Reva Brining) for their significant efforts, and especially to Ms. Thurman who put in a lot of extra effort on the project. The contest would not be possible without a dedicated teacher to direct the students, and her fine efforts are much appreciated.
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