The Hamlin Lake Ariel Rotary Club recently had their Rotary District 7410 Essay Contest giving students the prompt: Rotary’s Four Way Test, which guides all Rotary projects, including this question: “Is it fair to all concerned?”. Students were asked to write about the statement, “we use empathy to see other points of view, in the context of problems to be solved.” How can we use teamwork, inclusion, empathy, acceptance, belonging, and accountability to solve problems or achieve goals we set?
Rotary District 7410 offers this Essay Contest as an incentive for young people to develop their skills of self-expression, and as evidence of a sincere desire to demonstrate service above self, which is Rotary’s consistent motto.
Western Wayne High School students placed in the competition. Mercedes Pedersen, senior, took first place; Kennedy Scott, senior, placed second; and Anthony Redmond, senior, placed third.
Mercedes along with writing is involved in a variety of activities at Western Wayne including: color guard, stage crew, and Spanish Club. She is also the president of Western Wayne’s Chapter of the National Honor Society. She plans to study veterinary medicine with an emphasis on exotic and domestic animals.
Mercedes discussed how she focussed on how a problem can be solved using the pillars named by the Rotary Club.
“I discussed how the different aspects work together when solving a problem,” she said. “This was a rich topic, and I was able to get four pages out of it.”
Her work earned her a club-level first prize of 100 dollars in the contest, and she is excited to see her essay move on the district level where she will be in competition to win a 1,000 dollar prize for her excellent writing.
The second prize winner was Kennedy Scott. Her essay focussed on solving conflict through the use of the Rotary pillars.
Kennedy feels she will use the strong pillar qualities in her daily life more than ever next year when she takes on the unique opportunity of doing a gap year abroad through Colorado State University. She will earn twelve credits and get to travel the world going to destinations such as France, Spain, the Netherlands, Ghana, Japan, Thailand, and many other locations. She first learned of this academic opportunity through TikTok in her sophomore year, and she chose to pursue it and gained acceptance into the program. She will study media marketing at Colorado State University and aspires to do promotions for businesses after she graduates.
Finally our third prize winner is Anthony Redmond. He is a four year member of the Western Wayne High School Marching Band serving as the percussion section leader for two years. He also participated in Pep Band and Pit Band. He wishes to pursue a degree in music education to be a high school band director. Anthony focussed on the aspects of teamwork, inclusion, empathy, acceptance, and accountability in his essay all of which he knows make for a good working team in a high school marching band.
“I discussed both how these aspects can help make people work as a good team and how they can bring people apart as well at times,” he explained.
The Western Wayne School District and especially their English teacher Mrs. Carrie Wittenbrader congratulates these students on their award-winning efforts and wishes them the best in their bright futures.
From left: Mercedes Pedersen, Kennedy Scott, Anthony Redmond, and Mrs. Carrie Wittenbrader.
