Winners of the 2014 WWII Student Essay Contest!

Elementary school girls at Manzanar Relocation Center, CA. Photograph by Dorothea Lange. Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

The National WWII Museum is pleased to announce the winners and runners-up for The 2014 National WWII Student Essay Contest! This year, we received over 2,500 essays from 48 states and the District of Columbia, as well as entries from the US Territories of Guam and the Northern Marianas Islands, and from US military bases around the world. The Education Department at the Museum enjoyed reading your thoughtful and poignant responses to the 2014 prompt: “How did you plan to achieve success in the face of the unknown?”

With so many great essays, it was difficult to choose a winner. However, we are happy to share our winning selections and runners-up with you below and on our essay contest website. For those of you who are interested in reading the winning middle and high school essays, as well as the honorable mentions, please click on the links below.

Middle school contest winners will receive a $250 prize, while honorable mentions from each grade will receive a WWII Museum baseball cap. The first place winner of the high school contest will be awarded $1000, while the second place and third place winners will receive $750 and $500, respectively. High school honorable mentions will receive a National WWII Museum certificate.

Congratulations to all of the winners and honorable mentions for the 2014 essay contest, and thank you to everyone who participated! We hope you will check back at our website in January 2015 when we announce the 2015 Essay Contest theme!

2014 High School Contest Winners

• First Place: Margot Brose, “The War Within,” NorthStar Academy, Southaven, Mississippi

• Second Place: Seung Hwan An, “Perseverance in the Face of the Unknown: Japanese Americans in the 1940s and Korean Americans Today,” The Taft School, Watertown, CT

• Third Place: Emily Hess, “Finding My Voice,” Elizabethtown Area High School, Elizabethtown, PA

Honorable Mentions:

• Kevin Morrow, “Threshold,” Riverton High School, Columbus KS

• Carolyn Mei, “Of Dreams and Courage,” William Fremd High School, Palatine, IL

• Rachel Carpenter, “How Did You Plan to Achieve Success in the Face of the Unknown?” Covenant Day School, Matthews, NC

• Dan Park, “Looking Up Into the Cliffs of Hell,” Beverly Hills High School, Beverly Hills, CA

2014 Middle School Essay Contest Winners and Honorable Mentions:

 5^th Grade:

• First Place: Katie Sproles, “Middle School Survival,” Lipsey Middle School, Brookhaven, Mississippi

Honorable Mentions:

• Emma Rowe, “Tenaciously Stand Firm,”  Homeschool/Classical Conversations, Knoxville, TN

• Jadon Smith, “A Day in Danger,” Covenant Community School, Lake City, FL

6^th Grade:

• First Place: Ethan Yan, “Planning to Succeed,” The Nueva School, Hillsborough, CA

Honorable Mentions:

• Cavan McIntyre-Brewer, “Taking Control,” The Cove School, Duncannon, PA

• Piper Chapman, “Perfected By Practice,” Northwestern Middle School, Alpharetta, GA

 7^th Grade:

• First Place: Brian Lee, “My D-Day,” John F. Kennedy Middle School, Cupertino, CA

Honorable Mentions:

• Jessica Jang, “Hello America!” Bret Harte Middle School, San Jose, CA

• Andrew Hieger, “Winning the War,” San Antonio Academy, San Antonio, TX

• Jenny Chen, “Conquering Fear,” Sam H. Lawson Middle School, Cupertino, CA

 8^th Grade:

• First Place: Robert Yampanis, “When Darkness Threatened,” Norwell Middle School, Norwell, MA

Honorable Mentions:

• Ashley Su, “Entering the Unknown,” Redwood Middle School, Saratoga, CA

• Sasha El-Hai, “Climbing to Victory,” Susan B. Anthony Middle School, Minneapolis, MN

• Rendell Lucena, “An Endeavor Towards Success,” W. C. Pryor Middle School, Fort Walton

Great job, Everyone!

Post by Megan Byrnes, K-12 Curriculum Coordinator