| Wednesday, March 21, 2007 |
| Homeschooler Takes Top Honors In Essay Contest |
LANSING — Nathaniel Stine, a home-schooled student from DeWitt, continued a family tradition of taking top honors in the Lansing Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Essay Contest for high school youth. His essay, "At Sea or at Home; Different Perspectives on the Voyage to the New World" won as the best essay for high school students in the greater Lansing area.
Nathaniel had the choice of writing about Columbus's first voyage to the New World from the perspective of Queen Isabella of Spain, an ordinary seaman on the voyage, or a shipboard rat. He chose to write from the perspective of "Scar the Rat".
In 2006, his twin brother, Peter, took the top honor in the Columbus Essay Contest, while younger brother, Andrew, won in the sixth grade division for an essay on Benjamin Franklin. Peter and Nathaniel tied in 2005 for ninth grade and in 2006 Peter and Andrew received "Honorable Mentions" on the state level.
Grades five and eight wrote on the settlement of Jamestown, in celebration of its 400th anniversary this year. The students were instructed to take on the persona of one of Jamestown's early settlers, and to write a letter home to family members in England. The letter was to tell about daily activities and hardships in the colony.
Bath Elementary fifth grader, Marisa Hilts, took first place in her grade level with a letter written to family members in Bath, England. St. Johns Middle School seventh grade student, Rebecca Whitley Shaver, wrote about women's roles and experiences in Jamestown.
Lansing home-schooled students, sixth grader Caleb LaPorte, and eighth grader Katie Lichte won in their grade divisions. Caleb won as a fifth grader in 2006, and went on to win the State of Michigan award for his grade last year.
All students read their essays and received their awards at the DAR meeting held in Okemos on Feb. 22. Nathaniel received a certificate and $25, while the younger students received the same, plus a bronze medal. The Columbus essay contest does not provide a medal. Their essays have been entered at the state level.
Ginny Davis, a DeWitt home-schooled student, received the award for Outstanding Work n American History. Ginny is an eleventh grader and received this recognition for an outstanding PowerPoint presentation she did for the Lansing DAR Chapter on American Women's fashions from colonial times to the present. She also did the calligraphy on the winners' certificates.
Tina Martzke, fifth grade teacher at Bath Elementary School, submitted over 40 entries, which included Marisa Hilts' essay. She was delighted that when her class later covered Jamestown in social studies, the students had retained much of the information they had written about, and were eager to learn more.
Past Regent of the Lansing Chapter, Lou Hixson of Bath, took special joy in the contest, as she is a descendent of Jamestown settler, Captain Thomas Graves from the Virginia Company of London who came to the colony in 1608.
The essay contest committee consisted of Kristen Davis and Joyce Shaw of DeWitt, and was chaired by Johanna Balzer of Bath. JoAnne Shahl of Haslett is the current Regent. The judges were from Detroit suburbs and Grand Ledge.
The Lansing Chapter of the DAR was organized in 1896. Membership is based on the ability to prove lineage back to an ancestor who served the American cause during the American Revolution.
— From the Daughters of the American Revolution |
posted by All About Home @ 2:48 AM   |
|
|
|
