2013 Charter Essay Contest Winners Present at the State Capitol!

In the Capitol Rotunda
Photo: Wonderlovely Photography

Download the

2013 Charter Essay Contest Booklet here.

Due to rainy weather, the 9th annual Minnesota Charter Public Schools Essay Contest event was held inside the Capitol Rotunda on Thursday May 9th, 2013.  The MN House vote on the marriage bill was taking place as well.  But the poor weather and busy rotunda didn’t stop these amazing students from sharing their powerful, insightful, and sometimes funny, winning essays!  Thanks to all of the students, schools, and families who came out in support of our winners. Special thanks to TCF Foundation for co-sponsoring the event, Ruben Rosario of the Pioneer Press and Senator Pappas for speaking, and Senator Dibble for stopping by.

Describe the best day you’ve had at school. 

What made it the best day?

That’s the question that more than 2,200 Minnesota charter school students wrote about this spring.  We deeply appreciate their insights.  We also appreciate the faculty of almost 50 Minnesota charter public schools whose students submitted essays.  We take a little space here to explain this booklet and the annual Minnesota Charter Public School Writing Contest.

This is the ninth year that the Center for School Change has run this writing contest, and the seventh year that TCF has been a co-sponsor.  We deeply appreciate the support and encouragement from TCF, including Bill Cooper and Beth Topoluk.

We run the contest because we believe in the value of writing, and believe that students need more opportunities to share their work.  We also believe it’s vital to honor strong student work.

In February we sent the “prompt” listed above to all of Minnesota’s charter public schools.  As noted above, almost 50 schools responded, with more essays than we’ve ever received before.  (About 1,800 essays were submitted in 2012).

Macalester college student volunteers, led by Kelsey Austin-King, herself a California charter public school graduate, reviewed these essays.  They were divided into four major categories, students in grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12.  After the Macalester students review, a second review was conducted by CSC staff Marisa Gustafson, Kabo Yang and Joe Nathan.  We selected what we considered the best.  They are published here.

During National Charter Schools week in May, we gather at the Minnesota State Capitol to hear from and honor the winners.  We’ve learned a great deal from reading these essays.  We hope you will too.

Again, our thanks to TCF, the volunteer Macalester students, and to all participating schools, educators, families and most importantly, the students.  Congratulations to the winners.

-May, 2013

Check out the following photos of this great event:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A senior at Community of Peace Academy, Ser Vang reads her 2nd place essay in the 9th-12th grade division.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THANKS TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED IN AND SUPPORTED THE

9TH ANNUAL MINNESOTA CHARTER PUBLIC SCHOOLS ESSAY CONTEST!

See you again next year!