19th Annual MLK Event – 2012 Winning Essay Entries

19th Annual MLK Event – 2012

Winning Essay EntriesSouth Denton County

Westside Baptist ChurchLewisville, Texas

19th Annual MLK Event – 2012Winning Essay Entries

Sixth Grade, FIRST Place

Lee-Ann Saavedra, Downing, Mrs. Young

“The United States is like a bowl of soup. You can't just have one ingredient, you need

many different ingredients to let it flavor... We celebrate different holidays and have

different religions and cultures from all over the world.”


Sixth Grade- Second PlaceVivek Chilakamarri, SRMS, Mrs. St. John

“ Racism is an infamous issue but it isn't the only form of oppression. People who are

learning-disabled, mentally challenged, or crippled are usually excluded by their peers.

If someone can't run, it doesn't mean that they can't think...”


SIXTH Grade, THIRD Place

Emmalee Ann Clubb, SRMS, Mrs. St. John

“ Now, Color segregation isn't such a huge problem... instead, kids,teens,, and even adults are being merciless

bullies to people around them.”


6th Grade THIRD Place

SAMANTHA LANGFORD, SRMS Mrs. St. John

“Racism is wrong and it is wrong to exclude other people because they are

different from you. We are all people and we need to accept each other's

differences.”


SIXTH Grade THIRD Place

Kyle Whipple, SRMS, Mrs. St. John

“I think we should live in “King's World” because we won't be judged by

our looks. We will all be treated the same … nobody will be … treated

unfairly.”


7th Grade FIRST Place Suchir Angana, SRMS – Mrs. St. John

“Looking back at King's world and looking at ours, you can see how far we

have come. You can also see how far we have to go...”


SEVENTH Grade SECOND Place Cassia Joseph – Mrs. St. John

“Take one glance at society and one can see that kindness isn't always shown. This is not living the dream. Living the dream is seeing and treating everyone

as people.”


SEVENTH Grade THIRD Place 3A

Zaria Champion-Woods- Mrs. Williams

“ We could really go somewhere if we stop trying to follow after our parents and grandparents; … we should really

strive to be better than the adults in our life”


SEVENTH Grade THIRD Place 3B

Katie Ricketson, Lamar, Mrs. Bywater

“ Life is an opportunity to do so many things. I hope you know that dreams

are not just about helping you, they are also about helping others fulfill their

dreams too.”


EIGHTH Grade FIRST PLACE Rohit Swaminathan, Downing, Ms. Lentz

“Dr King’s vision continues to inspire people around the world. . . The Occupy

Wall Street movement ... is now spreading across the globe as people

fight for economic justice…With greater global cooperation, we can truly make Dr. King’s dream a reality across the

world.”


EIGHTH Grade SECOND PLACE Kylie Cluff, Shadow Ridge, Ms. St. John

“How did this man change my life? I go to school with people of many faiths and

colors. I am allowed to ... sit anywhere I like on the bus. My friends are black, white,

brown, yellow and all colors in between….I am an American teenager, and the color of

my skin is. . . Does it really matter?”


EIGHTH Grade THIRD PLACE Gabrielle Morris, Downing, Ms. Lentz

“...he would never have imagined that today, ... people would have tears in

their eyes while listening to his “I Have A Dream” speech. I want to say thank

you Martin Luther King, Jr. for standing up for mankind and making our world a

better place..”


EIGHTH Grade THIRD PLACE Denise Sun, Lamar, Ms. Hausmann

“... dreams are the resources of reality.. . . the power of dreams are truly invincible. Perhaps if we all challenged ourselves to dream more, to imagine more, to see this world in a different

and better way, we too could transform the world...”


EIGHTH Grade Hon. Mention-1

Elizabeth Filomeno – Mrs. Kirby

“We have Indians, Asians, Africans, and Mexicans in our school. We eat

lunch together. We even have Mexican and Black teachers

teaching students from all these races.”


EIGHTH Grade Honorable Mention-2 Simone Shaffer, Downing, Fredericks

“He saw that the world was on the edge of chaos, and that if we didn’t learn to work and live together... we would all plummet into an endless war. This

great man … united a nation, and in the process, he united a world.”


EIGHTH Grade Honorable Mention-3 Kyle Wichert, Downing, Ms. Lentz

“Dr. King was a man of ... love for his fellow people. He knew that we are all in this life together and must be unified by our strengths and by our weakness

in order to be one world and live the dream.”


EIGHTH Grade Honorable Mention-4 Tyler Collins, Huffines, Ms. Hadley

“In order for us to have one dream, we all need to have the right frame of mind. ... We all have different opinions... but we

can strive to have a better nation. America will soon realize that to have a

better nation, we have to love one another.”


EIGHTH Grade Honorable Mention-5

Kelly Wanhanen, Shadow Ridge, Ms. St. John

“Martin Luther King sought to make all people have equal rights – men,

women, blacks, whites and people from different states, countries and even

continents. Overall, Martin Luther King, Jr., is a great influence to everyone in

the entire world”


NINTH Grade FIRST PLACEJessica Young, LHS Harmon, Larson

“Martin Luther King, Jr. expressed his beliefs on using nonviolent resistance and yet here we

stand as a violent world. ... The power of love, willingness to suffer, and the focus on

society’s evils, and not the individuals, is what it will take for our world

to live the dream. ”


NINTH Grade SECOND PLACEMichelle Reyes, LHS Harmon, Lawson

““One” means unity. Unity is what Martin Luther King, Jr., longed for mankind to

discover and embrace. He fought to make it clear that we should not ... stress our differences, but to unite in harmony…

Together, let’s build the definition of unity…Dream the same dream.”


NINTH Grade THIRD PLACEAlexander Villegas LHS Harmon, Nigliazzo

“ Dr. King’s vision exemplified the view that we are one people, regardless of race or skin color. In order to help mankind live the

dream of a color blind world without racial oppression, Dr. King chose to fight for the

rights of his people.”


TENTH Grade FIRST Place Farhan Ahmad, Hebron HS, Shelton

“…The dream of one world is not too far fetched. From an individual donating to a

charity to a philanthropic group raising public awareness... With the syncretism of the

modern age, races and peoples of all identities join and collaborate every day ”


TENTH Grade SECOND Place

Hejab Khan, The Colony HS, Shideler

“He is regarded as one of the most inspirational people in history because of his

... fight against racial prejudice… We live under one sky and ultimately have one

destiny...we are all still humans and are all internally composed of the same basic

desires, needs, and emotions…”


TENTH Grade THIRD Place Christy Paliwoda, The Colony HS, Shideler.

“Dr. King had such a strong vision in his mind about what our country should look like. He

wanted friendship, and brotherhood. He wanted us to become ... accepting of each

other …He said his famous speech, hoping to change people’s lives

for the better, and he did..”


TENTH Grade Honorable Mention Blake Lubbers, The Colony HS, Ms. Shideler.

“Live the dream. I hope to one day live my dream… I want a world where the popular kids and the not-so popular kids, the jocks, and the band kids…can all just get along. Dr. King spoke of a world where people of different races could live together, and I

want my world to be no different.”


ELEVENTH Grade FIRST Place D. J. Simon, Marcus HS, Brininstool

“It seemed so long ago when Dr. King sparked the fires of equality that spread throughout

America before the foot of the statue of Lincoln... Dr. King’s flames of dreams would

reach to the far corners of the world inspiring a new generation of suppressed

people to rise up and face their oppressors…”


ELEVENTH Grade SECOND Place Cherry Srivastava, Marcus HS, Petkoff

“He opposed judgmental opinions while abetting the common acceptance for all…His ideals only pushed for the betterment of our world and displayed how simple it

was to acknowledge yourself as an individual and to recognize others as the

same.”


ELEVENTH Grade THIRD Place

Emerald Johnson, The Colony HS, Shideler

“A man of existence, so inspiring, changed life for the better. He created a world of

peace, with words…His words cut through the separation and outcasts...Today we share the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. … to continue the dream. ”


TWELFTH Grade FIRST PLACEDavid Leerssen, The Colony HS, Shideler

“There’s only one world, filled with 7 billion people that are all equal… If people would

spend their lives devoted to encouragement and love, their own lives would be valuably

affected in a positive manner. Dr. King believed in this very firmly…”


TWELFTH Grade SECOND PLACEGarrett Young, Flower Mound HS, Kemler

“A heart filled with compassion is needed to mend both the physical and emotional

wounds, and Dr. King knew that compassion heals and reforms the broken bonds that hate

and selfishness shatter”


TWELFTH Grade THIRD Place

Tre Wilson, The Colony HS, Shideler

“King’s dream was to live in a world where the color of your skin did not determine

how a person was treated …In the beginning, ... it was a nasty and vile divide between Blacks and Whites…By the end of the movements ... Blacks began to have

a non-invisible place in the world”

19th Annual MLK Event – 2012 Winning Essay Entries

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