And the Winners Are...

This past fall, we ran our annual Student Essay and Art contest. Starting in October, we received entries from high school and middle school students all over Nassau County. The prompt asked students to interpret the Clarence Darrow quote, “You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man’s freedom. You can only be free if I am free.” Students were encouraged to focus on the rights of women, minorities, the LGBT community, immigrants, students, prisoners or people with disabilities.

We received over 150 submissions in the form of essays, short stories, posters, poetry and photography. Judging was grueling, but a four-person panel, culled from our highly qualified ranks, went through the entries. In the end, they could only crown four winners, and award prizes of $100 each to the best Middle School entries and $300 each to the best High School entries.

	The Middle School essay winner was eighth grader Chloee Etessami who submitted a stirring short story about LGBT rights. Read an excerpt here.
	Eleventh grader Bonnie Schiffman had the winning High School essay for her intensive and thought provoking piece on the rights of political prisoners in times of war. Read excerpts here.
	Abraham Libman, an eighth grader, took the prize for Art with a multimedia depiction of a caged Bald Eagle behind Lady Liberty’s torch. See it here.
	Tenth grader Nicholas Elias takes home the high school art award for his multimedia presentation of the civil liberty themed mural he painted on a wall in his home. Check back soon to see an image of this winner's entry.

The winners will be honored at our annual membership meeting in June. Thanks to all the students and teachers who participated. We can’t wait to see what the youth of Nassau County has in store for us next year!