“The Georgia Laws of Life Essay Contest”
Gary Webb provided information to his fellow Rotarians about the Georgia Rotary Districts Character Education Program at the noon meeting of the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville on Monday, March 18. The program, known as the Georgia Laws of Life Essay Contest, is fourteen years old. Over 400,000 essays have been submitted over those years and more than $200,000 in prize money passed along to 49 participating Georgia high schools. The goal of the essay contest is to have an impact on lives of students. It fills a need in schools to explore shared ethical values. Students compose an essay related to a saying which applies to their lives with the emphasis being on the personal reflection, not correct grammar or mechanics. Gary introduced Horace Buckley, a ninth-grader at Gwinnett High School, who was there with his father. Horace read his winning essay based on the saying “Life is short. Just go.” Gary then told stories of particular students who had success stories related to their participation in this program. He is a judge for this competition and acknowledged how difficult the judging often was.
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Five Gwinnett County high schools participated in this year’s Georgia Laws of Life Essay Contest, which is the largest character education writing competition in North America. Statewide, nearly 40,000 high school students wrote a Laws of Life essay, and 6,314 of those students were residents of Gwinnett.
The Georgia Laws of Life Essay Contest asks students to select a “Law of Life” or maxim (such as “Honesty is the best policy,” or “To give is better than to receive”), and to write about how the character value contained in the quote applies to the student’s life. Some of the maxims selected by Gwinnett students include, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams” (Eleanor Roosevelt), “To listen, when nobody else wants to listen, is a beautiful thing” (Mother Teresa), and “Count your blessings.”
In writing their essays, students are challenged to examine and reflect upon core values such as generosity, courage and compassion. The contest, which rewards students who are willing to take a stand for their beliefs, provided more than $17,000 in student awards and teacher honoraria this year alone.
The Georgia Laws of Life contest is a program of the Georgia Rotary Districts Character Education Program, Inc. (GRDCEP), a Rotary-based nonprofit organization. The Rotary Club of Gwinnett and the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville are contest sponsors, along with 40 additional Rotary Clubs throughout Georgia including the Rotary Club of Stone Mountain which sponsored Shiloh High. The Georgia Power Foundation is one of several Presenting Sponsors, and Gwinnett-based Peach State Federal Credit Union serves as one of several Silver Level sponsors.
The national model for the contest was created in 1987 by Sir John Templeton, a noted philanthropist and the founder of The John Templeton Foundation. The Georgia contest is in its 14th year, and since its inception more than 406,000 Laws of Life essays have been written by Georgia teens.
This year’s participating Gwinnett County high schools include Berkmar High, Brookwood High, North Gwinnett High, Peachtree Ridge High, and Shiloh High. We thank the schools’ Laws of Life contest chairs – Ms. Dennise Peagler, Mr. Dana Kling, Ms. Barbie Nelson, Ms. Leigh Ann Danley, and Ms. Gayle Bankhead – for championing the program within their schools.
Student winners from Gwinnett include:
Berkmar High School: School Winner Lizabeth Pena; Grade Winners Kimberly Salas, Alexandra Pearlstein, and Jenny LeNguyen
Brookwood High School: School Winner Nicholas Na; Grade Winners Cindy Nguyen and Lauren Jones
North Gwinnett High School: School Winner Horace Buckley; Grade Winners Eunbi Kim, Kaycee Shuler, and Alex Kario
Peachtree Ridge High School: School Winner Jessica Palencia; Grade Winners Tatiana Patino, Benjamin Scott, and Navera Tahamddin
Shiloh High School: School Winner J’Markus George; Grade Winner Jaylin Wiggins
High schools that are interesting in participating in the 2013-2014 contest, and individuals and corporations that are interested in serving as contest sponsors, should visit www.georgialawsoflife.org thank you Gwinnett Citizen for Sharing