The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation invites U.S. high school students to describe and analyze an act of political courage by a U.S. elected official who served during or after 1917, the year John F. Kennedy was born. Include an analysis of the obstacles, risks, and consequences associated with the act. The essay may concern an issue at the local, state, national, or international level.
The contest is open to United States high school students in grades nine through twelve attending public, private, parochial, or home schools; US students under the age of twenty enrolled in a high school correspondence/GED program; and US citizens attending schools overseas. The first-place winner receives $10,000. Second-place receives $3,000. Five finalists receive $1,000 each. Eight semifinalists receive $100 each. Ten students receive honorable mention. Submissions are evaluated on content (demonstrated understanding of political courage, originality, supporting evidence, source material) and presentation (quality of writing, organization, conventions.) Includes information about disqualifications. The contest deadline is January 15, 2021. For more information, visit www.jfklibrary.org/learn/education/profile-in-courage-essay-contest. If you have a talent in writing, dancing, singing, acting, playing an instrument or painting and drawing and you would like to spend three weeks during the summer fine tuning that talent, consider the Governor’s School for the Arts (GSA). Take five minutes to view the video about GSA at https://www.facebook.com/wvgsa2019/videos/1280732465415604/ to see what it is all about.
The Governor’s School for the Arts (GSA) is financed by the West Virginia Legislature, managed by the West Virginia Department of Education, and is FREE. All materials and supplies needed for your classes will be shipped to your home. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have had to redesign our program to provide a deeply meaningful digital experience for you. Imagine that you are a painter and get to spend three hours each morning throwing yourself into your creation at your digital art studio (aka any quiet place in your home or local library) to work with 13 or 14 other students under the direction of an accomplished artist. If you are a dancer, your digital studio will provide you an opportunity to stretch and grow in both classical ballet and modern dance. The classes are small, the passion is intense, and the growth is simply phenomenal. The same growth opportunities exist for students in the other arts disciplines at GSA. Upon arrival in 2019, one student told her mother, “These are my people; this is where I belong.” Another said, near the end of the GSA, “Words don’t express how grateful I am for this experience. It is something that will follow me beyond here. It will follow us all from here.” Even though we will not meet on campus, we will have special activities and programs that will not only allow but create a sense of family among all the artists. To get information about applying for GSA go to http://govschools.wv.gov/gsa. From there you can follow the links to the applications as well as information about how to plan for your audition. If you have questions, feel free to contact me at [email protected] or by phone at 304-640-0988. On January 8th and 9th five Monroe County 4-H youth participated in the National Virtual Livestock Quiz Bowl Competition and the National Virtual Livestock Judging Competition hosted by Utah State University. The first competition was the virtual livestock quiz bowl competition on held on January 8th. Lauren Ballard, Emma Ballard, and Shane Arthur filled three of the four seats on the Green team representing West Virginia, while A.J. Chernauskas, and Caden Glover, made up half of the white team. Three other 4-Hers from around the state comprised the remainder of the two teams. Fifteen teams from ten states entered the competition for this new approach in delivering these types of educational events in a covid world. Although WV didn’t win we had a great two months in preparing for the event. Participants learned an eminence amount of material related to livestock production such as, animal health, nutrition, reproduction, meat quality, breed identification, and many other topics.
In the livestock judging competition Lauren and Emma Ballard made up half of the WV Livestock Judging Team. Both Lauren and Emma had participated in livestock judging competitions in the past and have been very successful both in WV and regionally. This was the first National competition that they had participated in and they fared very well. The competition comprised of ten classes of livestock that were placed and six sets of oral reasons, where they explained their placing in a one to two minute oral presentation. There were sixteen teams and sixty seven youth from across the U.S. competing, and our WV team placed fifth. Individually, Lauren placed twelfth overall and was second in placings being edged out by one point from a participant from Georgia with a score of 465 out of 500 possible. Emma did an outstanding job as well by placing 15th overall in reasons. Congratulations to our Monroe County 4-Hers who represented WV well in this National competition!! |
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