24 Ariz. schoolchildren win MLK poster-essay contest


Twenty-four schoolchildren from around the state have won awards in ASU’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. poster-essay contest. They will receive savings bonds and prize ribbons from ASU President Michael Crow at a celebration breakfast Jan. 20, in the Memorial Union, on the Tempe campus.

Attorney Herb Ely, an activist for civil rights, will receive the 2011 MLK Servant-Leadership Award. Alex Wilson, a senior in kinesiology, will receive the student Servant Leadership Award.

All the winning posters will be displayed at the event, and four children will read their first-place essays to the group. Also invited to the awards ceremony are their parents and teachers. About 1,700 children entered the contest, each describing someone they know who leads through service to others.

The posters will be on display through January in the Tempe campus Memorial Union and the Polytechnic campus Student Union. Winning posters and essays can be viewed online soon at http://www.asu.edu/mlk.

The contest categories are primary, grades K-2; intermediate, grades 3-5; middle, grades 6-8; and secondary, grades 9-12. Following is a list of winners.

Mesa: The primary poster category, once again, was swept by second-graders from Franklin Northeast Elementary. Miriah Montoya won first place; Nathan Weldon, second; and Jonathon Jones, third. Six other students from Franklin Northeast won in the essay competition; in the primary category, second grader Miriah Montoya won first place; Brooke Shinkle, second grade, won second; and Brady MacLay, second grade, won third. In the intermediate category, Annie Ethington, fourth grade, won first; and Jenah Park and Tanner Payne, both fifth-graders, won second and third, respectively. Another Mesa student, sixth-grader Abigail Felgemaker of Franklin South Elementary, won first-place essay in the middle-school category.

Scottsdale: The secondary category essay competition was dominated by sophomores from Chaparral High School. Rachel Burbidge won first place; Allysan Breece, second; and Ema Shgalsi, third. Scottsdale students also won prizes in the middle school essay category. Sanket Bhagat, seventh-grader at Ingleside Elementary, received second place; and Rachel Jeffries, eighth-grader at Mountainside Middle School, won third place. In the poster competition, Ryann Thomas, third-grader at Sequoyah Elementary, won second in the intermediate category; and Elyse Rangel and Phillip Do, seventh-graders at Ingleside, won first and third place, respectively, for middle school.

Gilbert: Amanda Bivians, senior at Gilbert Early College in the LEAD charter schools, won first place poster in the secondary category.

Paradise Valley: Taylor Elton, third-grader at Sonoran Sky Elementary, won first place poster in the intermediate category.

Deer Valley: Hannah Leber, ninth-grader at Mountain Ridge High School, won second place poster in the secondary category.

Cartwright District: Irving Lamadrid, fourth-grader at Manuel Pena Elementary, won third place poster in the intermediate category.

Washington District: Adriana Andrade, sixth-grader at Royal Palm Middle School, won second place poster in the middle school category.

St. Johns: Amanda Valles, junior at St. Johns High School, won third place poster in the secondary category.