WASATCH FRONT STUDENTS RECEIVE AWARDS FOR BYU CONTEST
Wasatch Front students were honored at a reception Thursday for their winning entries in an art and essay competition sponsored by the Center for the Study of Europe (CSE) at Brigham Young University (BYU).
The art contest was limited to elementary students grades 4-6. From over fifty art entries, the judges selected eight finalists. At the banquet, the judges announced the three top winners.
The prompt for the art contest was “Family Dinner in _______ (European country of student’s choice).” Students depicted dinner scenes from all over Europe, including France, Spain, and Italy.
Winning artwork will be displayed in the Provo Art Center during the month of June and may also be viewed online at the CSE website, http://europe.byu.edu
Middle and high school students competed in the essay competition. The event contest was divided into grades 7-9 and 10-12, with three winners in each category.
The winning essay in the grades 7-9 division answered the prompt to prepare a speech as the President of the United States addressing a special joint meeting of the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. Jay Stirling, CSE Outreach Coordinator and director of the art and essay contest, described the entries as “fiery and spirited,”
Candice Anderson, a 9th grader from West Hills Middle, received first-place honors for her essay entitled, “If We Had Not Winter…” Her essay expressed the need to strengthen the ties between NATO and the EU, help rectify global problems and build and increase technology.
Anderson wrote, “Linking our people is another way to strengthen [US and EU] relations. . . . Children are the future of our countries and we don’t want them to be ignorant to situation going on around the globe.”
In the junior high category, other finalists were “Welcoming a New Strength in Foreign Affairs,” by Victoria Edsall, 9th grader at West Hills Middle School, first runner up; and “USA-Germany,” by Krishtopher Powell, 9th grader at Wasatch Mountain Junior High School, second runner up.
Participants in the 10-12 category were asked to think of the US as a nation of immigrants and identify and describe subsequent European influences (cultural, political, etc.) on the US.
Amanda Fujiki, a 10th grader from Meridian High School received first-place honors for her essay entitled “Midway, Utah: Switzerland in America,” describing her grandfather’s house in Midway that was built by Swiss immigrants in 1880.
In her essay, Fujiki concludes, “The town of Midway illustrates one way in which European immigrants influenced American culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their influence was perhaps more subtle than that seen in European-American neighborhoods and boroughs in large urban areas, but it was pervasive and continuing.”
Other winners in the high school category were “Three ‘New’ Immigrants’ Contributions,” by Jonathan Bean, 10th grader at Meridian High School, first runner up; and “The Influential Power of the Immigrants,” by Paul Smith, 10th grader at Meridian High School, second runner up.
Complete transcripts of the two first-place essays are also available on the CSE website.
The top three winners in each category received a cash award and the finalists’ schools received a set of CultureGrams for their school library.
Teachers and students are encouraged to plan ahead for next year’s art and essay competition. The topics will be announced at a later date on the CSE web site.
CSE is funded by a Title VI grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
Additional information about CSE or the art and essay contest may be found on the CSE website at http://europe.byu.edu.
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All content copyright 2009 David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies.
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BYU Museum of Art
