Council Rock, Conwell-Egan students earn scholarships through essay contest
TheLegacyof1776.com recognized the winners of its 2022 Scholarship Essay Contest.
The first-place winner is Jessie Jin, a Council Rock North High School senior, and runner-up is Hailey Morath, a senior attending Conwell-Egan Catholic High School.
Organizers said the civics contest grew out of a profound respect for the Constitution but concern that over the past 30 years, America has become a nation increasingly characterized by partisan political and social tribalism, a loss of confidence in and distrust of many of our nation’s most critically-important and historically-trusted institutions, a growing public perception our judicial system has becoming increasingly politicized along ideological lines, a latent distrust of local law enforcement agencies in many minority communities, evidence-based science on issues ranging from vaccine efficacy to the climate being ignored, calls for censorship and limitation of speech and, without any proof, where a large minority of Americans believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
TheLegacyof1776.com set out in 2021 to sponsor a scholarship essay contest focusing on American Civics and knowledge of our Constitution. The Courier Times partnered to publish the winners.
Its inaugural contest, open to all Bucks County high school seniors, encouraged interested students to submit a 250–300-word essay addressing, “What, if any, are, should be or should not be limitations on the freedoms granted and responsibilities imposed by the Bill of Rights … and why?”
This year’s students were challenged to write an essay answering the question: “Should the Constitution be interpreted based on a literal reading of the document’s original text (“originalism”) or viewed in the context of our nation’s evolving social, scientific and other changes since the time when it was written (a “living constitution”) and why?”
Each year a panel of seven independent judges read and rated each of the submissions with their collective consensus determining the first and second place awardees.
Jessie Jin was presented with a Certificate of Recognition and a $2,500 scholarship award.
She enjoys conducting research through Science Fair. She also promotes STEM by organizing STEM workshops as an officer for Education Equals Empowerment and as the president of the Science National Honor Society. Beyond science, she is passionate about music and plays the flute in band and viola in orchestra. Her future plans are to major in biomedical engineering in college, though she is undecided about becoming a biomedical engineer or physician in the future. She hopes to contribute to the medical field by combining her interdisciplinary interests in the life sciences.
The second-place scholarship award of $1,000 and Certificate of Recognition was given to Hailey Morath. Heather, who had no prior knowledge of her award, was joined by her parents and a number of members of the Conwell-Egan’s Faculty and Administration to receive it.
Hailey, took many STEM based courses through her high school career, along with some dual enrollment courses to get ahead on college credits. She also received Academic First Honors all throughout my high school career and has been active in many extracurricular and community service activities including the Conwell-Egan Drama Spring and Fall Productions, Chamber Choir, All-Catholic Chorus, Acapella Club, Spirit Night, National Honor Society, and Danaher Lynch Family Foundation Scholar. She has applied to a number of colleges where she plans to study Marine Sciences and become an Oceanographer.
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Council Rock, Conwell-Egan students earn scholarships through essay contest
