Schools

Plymouth Middle School Students Awarded for Their Human Rights Essays

Students from Golden Valley, Robbinsdale and New Hope win state honors for their writing.

How do human rights apply to you and your peers in your school and community? That was the topic of this year’s League of Minnesota Human Rights Commissions (LMHRC) statewide essay contest, for which students from Plymouth Middle School won honors.

This is the ninth year that the New Hope has sponsored the statewide essay contest in cooperation with eighth grade teachers Sue Lundquist, Lieschen Schoenert, Malinda Swalboski and Justin Moe, who weave the topic into their curriculum to make it more relevant for their students.

Statewide, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students are eligible to participate by submitting one entry. Essays are typically one to three pages in length, and students learn a lot by engaging in this reflective practice of writing about their experiences. This year, first place honors went to Katie Cudo of Minneapolis; Jamie Johnson of Plymouth won second place, and Ellie Sjordal of Golden Valley won third place.

Honorable mentions were given to Tiela Banks of Robbinsdale, Chris Bradbury of Crystal, Tim Hill of Golden Valley, Alexander Creswell of
Plymouth, and Jack Wozniak of New Hope.

The first, second and third place winners receive a monetary reward, and those students are invited to read their essays to the audience. The first place winning essay is forwarded to the LMHRC to compete against the other winning submissions from around the state. All students, including honorable mention winners, are recognized with a certificate.

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The ceremony will be held at 7pm on April 11th in the New Hope Council Chambers.

Editor's Note: Robbinsdale Area Schools' communications director, Tia Clasen, contributed information for this story.

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