The National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution recently hosted an essay contest. Senior Claire Demeter won first place in this essay contest!
For this contest, participants had to write about an event with the American Revolution, whether a person, philosophical, or an ideal in eight hundred to one thousand two hundred words. Demeter had written an essay titled “The Hero of Two Worlds – Marquis de Lafayette.” She wrote about the role Lafayette played in the revolution and the help he had gained for us from France.
Demeter had explained that the hardest part of writing this essay was finding the right resources that were historically accurate and during the right time period.
“I used physical books that had parts about him and his life and parts that also focused on that time because there was plenty that was just like his whole life, but it was just supposed to focus on that time period,” Demeter said in regards to her research process.
By joining this contest, Demeter gained writing skills that she did not have before.
“I had never really written an essay in like a biography form and really about history, like that kind of research part of it,” she explained.
Through this essay, she gained the skills to write a biographical essay, and how to research historical information. These skills can help her later if she has to research specific topics that could be harder to find than others. Researching specific topics in history can change your view of what happened.
“I guess a little bit, like knowing how much help we got from other places worldwide. It was new and interesting, learned a little bit more about the specifics,” Demeter continued.
Learning about the specifics can change how you view the past, and for Demeter, it showed her how much help America had truly gotten during the American Revolution.
Winning this contest is a big accomplishment and can be used to open doors in the future.
“It’s definitely nice to know that my writing’s good cause I feel like I struggled with English a lot so winning the essay was really nice, kinda like a confidence boost. So it’ll help me when I’m applying for scholarships and stuff to get ready for college.”
Writing essays can be a struggle for many students, but it is important for many. Winning this contest gave Demeter the confidence boost that she needed, which will help her in the future, whether in college or just applying for scholarships.
Choosing to enter a contest can be hard for many, and having someone by your side mentoring you through can be very helpful. When asked, Demeter had said:
“My mom kind of like mentored me through the whole research and writing process.”
Finding the information Demeter had explained was difficult, so having her mom there to help her was something that she found very useful. Having her mom as a mentor helped her push through the contest, and helped her to win. She also continued with:
“…[I] started improving my writing last year in Mr. Livovich’s class and I used the structure of essays that he had taught us to use.”
She finished by saying that her mentors for writing this essay had been her mom and Mr. Livovich, even if they had not been there writing with her, what they had taught her in the past helped her to accomplish this.
Winning this contest was a huge accomplishment. With every win, there is a message that can shine through.
“Take the chance to write about it if you think it’s interesting… go for it if you can think of something that you’re interested in,” Demeter said when asked if she had a message to leave people with.
She explained that joining this competition was not something that she would normally have chosen to do, but she had taken the chance. So remember to always take the chance, just as winner Claire Demeter has said.
