Note on 2021 an 2022 Club Essay Contests: With the difficulties of the COVID situation, our club was not able to submit a club level entry to the district for 2021 since none of the students that entered were able to submit an entry for judging prior to the deadline. The school had been in virtual mode all of the school year, which was an obstacle to the usual essay contest process which is very time intensive for students and the teacher. At the start of the 2021-2022 school year, the threat of the pandemic continued to be a factor for the students and teachers. The club postpone the 2022 event and a 2023 resumption of the event is planned.
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 a selected grade class in 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.
2020 CONTEST
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2020 Contest:
Several students in Mrs. Forrer’s eleventh grade English class at Northridge High School recently completed entries in the club level contest conducted by Northridge Optimist Club. The topic of the 2020 contest was “Is Optimism the Key to Achieving The Dreams you iMagine?” The essays were completed by the end of February to comply with the contest rules.
An awards luncheon had been scheduled for March 17 to honor the winners, but the school closing, and “stay-at-home” order made this impossible this year. The awards are being announced online, and award materials have been mailed to the contestants.
The first place award went to Leah Adkins, second place to Ashley Kessler, and third to Kira Ball. They are pictured above.
The top three received an Olympic style medallion (gold, silver and bronze), and all contestants received a certificate for their placing. Leah’s winning essay was sent on to compete statewide with other winning student essays for a chance at a $2500 scholarship from Optimist International.
Several students in Mrs. Forrer’s eleventh grade English class at Northridge High School recently completed entries in the club level contest conducted by Northridge Optimist Club. The topic of the 2020 contest was “Is Optimism the Key to Achieving The Dreams you iMagine?” The essays were completed by the end of February to comply with the contest rules.
An awards luncheon had been scheduled for March 17 to honor the winners, but the school closing, and “stay-at-home” order made this impossible this year. The awards are being announced online, and award materials have been mailed to the contestants.
The first place award went to Leah Adkins, second place to Ashley Kessler, and third to Kira Ball. They are pictured above.
The top three received an Olympic style medallion (gold, silver and bronze), and all contestants received a certificate for their placing. Leah’s winning essay was sent on to compete statewide with other winning student essays for a chance at a $2500 scholarship from Optimist International.
Honorable Mention awards went to Benjamin Vo, Diamonique Story, Corey Soles, (not pictured) and Hana Barajas (photo on the right).
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!
The seven entries in this year's club level contest were the most impressive that we have seen, and each contestant did an outstanding job. Each one can be very proud of their achievement.
Special thanks go to teacher Karen Forrer for everything she did to guide her students through the process of writing, fine tuning, and finishing their essays for the 2019-2020 Optimist Essay Contest. The contest is always a challenge to keep on schedule, from the applications, organization, essay writing, and entry submissions. It couldn’t be done without a dedicated teacher to make it possible. So our club thanks her for taking on the project this year, and inspiring such fine work from the contestants.
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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 the judges (Tina Rezash Rogal, and Kristen Tomlinson) for their significant efforts, Laura Inkrott, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Northridge Local Schools for her support and assistance, and Northridge teacher Karen Forrer (see above) who put in a lot of extra effort on the project.
We regret that photos were not available for all of the students. A group photo, and individual photos are normally taken at the awards ceremony, but since that could not take place, we had to use what file photos were available.