History Essay Winners Honored at Awards Ceremony

With some help from the Founding Fathers, students at Palm Middle School took on a challenge that today’s top leaders struggle over—national debt. The resulting 90 entries in the annual Eighth Grade History Essay Competition produced three winners and five honorable mentions.

Addressing the $15 trillion problem, eighth-grade history students called on the wisdom of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton to add historic context to arguments for and against national debt and the debt ceiling. They also touched on personal themes ranging from financial self-indulgence to family budgets.

Helen Ofield, president of the Lemon Grove Historical Society, which sponsors the competition each year, called the topic complex and praised the young writers for being passionate, opinionated and persuasive.

The five-member jury panel, consisting of historical society board members Ofield, Josie Kane, Dona Lynn Clabby, Tommy Clabby and Rosemary Putnam, were wowed by the entries, finding the teenage essayists to be fluent, informed and engaged, said Ofield.

“Among so many fine essays, our challenge was to select first, second and third place,” said jury member Kane.

Awards were presented by Ofield and Kane at the school board meeting Tuesday at the Community Center.

The 2011 winners are Eric Portalez, who took first place for his essay, “U.S. National Debt”; Michelle Tran, second place for “The Endless Wonder of National Debt”; and Taya Lee, third place for “The United States as We Know It.”

Honorable mentions went to Cheyenne Canones, Viviana Carrillo, Jasmine Carter, Stephanie Moreno, and Gigi Wilkenson.

Union Bank provided each winner with a $100 U.S. savings bond and goody bag.