HERE essay competition winners announced at luncheon

HERE essay competition winners announced at luncheon

BY JAN WEST
Special to the Rice News

The Houston Enriches Rice Education (HERE) project concluded its first essay-writing contest with an awards ceremony at Rice University in which 10 local high school students were honored with cash prizes and free SAT preparatory classes.

The ceremony took place May 19 and was attended by the winners, their parents, several HISD officials, and Rice staff and faculty. Presenting the awards was Caroline Levander, professor of English and director of the Humanities Research Center, which provided funding for the essay contest.

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Essay competition winners represented 10 high schools in the Houston Independent School District. First-place winner Kierra Lee, a junior at Yates High School, won $1,000. Second-place winner LaWanda Turner, a junior at Westbury High School, won $750. Third-place winner Maria Andrade, a junior at Jefferson Davis High School, won a $500 prize.

Seven other students received honorable mention: Andre Benson, a junior at Worthing High School; Estefani Fuentes, a sophomore at Stephen F. Austin High School; Aleli Mora, a junior at Stephen F. Austin High School; Neidy Ramos, a junior at Westbury High School; Eduardo Saenz, a sophomore at Reagan High School; Kimberly Velez, a sophomore at Stephen F. Austin School High; and Judy Ughanze, a sophomore at Madison High School.

As part of the award, all the students will receive a free SAT six-week preparatory course from Princeton Review. The course will take place on the Rice campus during July and August. 

The essay contest required students to write about the most challenging issue facing Houston in the 21st century. The winning essays focused on a variety of topics, including crime, the environment and education.

First-place winner Lee cited violence as a sickness plaguing Houston and compassion as one tool for healing the community.

Second-place winner Turner wrote about her concern for the Houston environment. She had served as an intern at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans for several summers before coming to Houston after Hurricane Katrina. Turner said her work at the zoo made her passionate about environmental issues.

Third-place winner Andrade found through research that 93 students drop out of Texas public schools each hour. She focused on how this problem is affecting the Houston community.

Parents praised the HERE contest. Felicia Ughanze said that the program was a great motivator for both the students and parents. ”Students need to see that their hard work pays off,” she said. ”Parents need that as well.” 

When asked what she planned to do with the unrestricted prize money, Lee said, ”I plan to buy a graphic calculator to help with my homework and buy something for my grandmother, who really deserves it.”

The essay contest is a component of the HERE project, which is designed to advance the university’s engagement with Houston. Anthony Pinn, the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and professor of religious studies at Rice, founded the project last year.

”I wanted to engage young people from different Houston communities in a writing process which encouraged them to reflect on their future and practice their writing skills,” Pinn said. ”This project will also give the students the opportunity to dialogue with the Rice community as they participate in the on-campus Princeton Review classes.”