Daughters of American Revolution offering writing, scholarship contests
The Alta Mira Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution is offering a three writing projects this month.
Winning students will be invited to an Alta Mira Chapter Awards ceremony in February during which they will read their essays and receive a certificate, a medal, and a monetary award. The winner’s essay in each grade level will be sent to the District V competition and the District Winner will advance to State Competition, then Regionals, and finally the National event.
Both Burton School District and Porterville Unified School District offices have information on the writing projects. Schools, teachers, and families may request this information from them or from an Alta Mira Chapter representative.
The writing opportunities could be a class assignment from which the best entry in each grade from each school is selected and sent to a chapter representative. It could also be an individual student who desires to complete the work on his or her own for extra credit or because of an interest in the topic.
The American History Essay Contest for fifth through eighth grade students in private and public schools or are home schooled requires research and a bibliography plus a first person point of view within the narrative. The topic for 2021-2022 is “The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.”
This essay is due to the chapter by November 1. A winner from each grade level from each school may be sent to the chapter.
Another American History Essay Contest is for ninth through 12th grade students private and public schools or who are home schooled. This is also a research paper requiring a bibliography.
The topic is “Patriots of the American Revolution.” For this, the student selects one figure from the American Revolution era (man, woman or child) who supported the American Revolution in ways large or small.
The essay is also due to the chapter by November 1. Each high school must select only one entry from all grades combined to send to the Chapter.
The third project is open to high school seniors selected by staff as the DAR Good Citizen for his or her high school. This selection is based upon good citizen qualifications of Dependability, Service, Leadership, and Patriotism, plus grades and activities.
Once an individual is selected, he or she enters the Scholarship Contest. Scholarships are based on high school activities and interests, scholastics and honors or awards, home and community contributions, future plans, extra-curricular activities, and reflections on how the student exemplifies citizenship qualities.
The last portion of the contest is to write an essay in the presence of a faculty member within a two hour limit without reference materials. The topic is unknown until the student is ready to write. The Good Citizen Packet is due on November 15 to the chapter representative.
For each contest, three non DAR members are selected as impartial judges. Each judge reads the material and fills out a form selecting a score for each part of the requirements.
The final scores from each judge are added for each individual in each contest. The chapter winner is the one with the most points scored.
Each DAR Good Citizen represents his or her high school and will receive a certificate, a pin, a wallet card and a monetary award at the Awards Program. Also, the winner will advance to District V competition.