By Merritt Frey, Executive Director
After much great work by our volunteer essay reviewers, we can announce the 40 finalists in our Make the Case for Caring Essay Contest!
The finalist list is as follows (alphabetized by last name):
Tala Alfoqaha, Minnesota
Alyssa Aracena, New York
Sarah Baum, New Jersey
Destiny Carter, Louisiana
Savanna Carter, Florida
Amy Chaviguri, New York
Aryia Dattamajumdar, New York
Lauren DeVaney, Louisiana
Kevin Dowling, New York
Marisa Doyle, Connecticuit
Madalyn Duncan, Louisiana
Gabrielle Dunn, Louisiana
Natasha Garcon, New York
Chloe Glover, Louisiana
Aisha Hussain, New York
Esther In, Maryland
Lacey Isbell, North Carolina
Claudia Kacmarcik, Delaware
Sumaiya Khan, New York
Fiona Kurian, New York
Nadia Lathan, California
David Lee, New Jersey
Jamie Liang, California
Laila Lumbab, New York
Tani Madichetti, Ohio
Amy Montoya, New York
Ropani Moses, Utah
Dylan Nandlall, New York
Raksha Narasimhan, California
Victor Ocampo, New York
Ryan Oommen
Alana Perry, Texas
Nicholas Pregeant, Louisiana
Sydney Sampson, Louisiana
Elijah Saxton, Ohio
Brianna Sewsundar, New York
Natalie Spivak, Florida
Nia Stewart, New York
Jonathan Williams, Louisiana
Grace Zhang, Arizona
What does finalist status mean? It means these students wrote a good, compelling essay! These students wrestled effectively with this year's topic: "Why should an average person in the United States invest in educating children in a far-off country like Mali...what is in it for us?" Learn more about this year's contest.
Finalist status also means that these essays are now with our finalist judges. The judges are scoring all the essays to identify our three overall winners.
Based on the judges’ work, we will announce the three winning essays in late May. The first place we will announce the winners is on this blog and our Facebook page, so you may want to “like” and follow us on Facebook if you are curious about the winning essays.
Whether or not an essay ends up in the top three, today all of our finalists should be proud of their work and their finalist status. Our reviewers enjoyed reading our entrants' thoughts and ideas about the power of investing in education in a place like Mali. We hope the students enjoyed learning and thinking about the issue too.
Thank you to all our contest participants and to our dogged volunteer essay reviewers, and good luck to our finalists in the final round!
