2011 High School Scholarship Essay Contest

PSR/Sacramento congratulates the ten finalists for the
2011 High School Scholarship Essay Contest.

The prompt for this year’s contest was:

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

— President and World War II Supreme Allied Commander, Dwight Eisenhower

First Place – Shannan Takhar, River Valley High School, Yuba City

Second Place – Katie Tanner, Calaveras High School, San Andreas

Third Place – Ela Banerjee, Roseville High School, Roseville

The other finalists were:
Kayla Carlisle, Golden Sierra High School, Garden Valley
Megan Donnelly, Union Mine High School, El Dorado
Aye Khine, St. Patrick-St. Vincent High School, Vallejo
Alejandro Saldivar, Yuba City High School, Yuba City
Samuel Schooley, Bella Vista High, Fair Oaks
Nolan Wong, C. K. McClatchy High School, Sacramento

Russell Islam, Mira Loma High school, Sacramento was unable to present
his essay because of his participation in the National Science Bowl.

The ten student finalists presented their essays orally at the PSR/Sacramento Scholarship Finals Dinner on May 1 at the Dante Club in Sacramento. The first place winner received a $2,500 scholarship, second place a $1,500 scholarship, and third place a $1,000 scholarship.
The other seven finalists received $750 scholarships.
View the “finals” courtesy of Media Edge.

The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners were chosen by a panel of distinguished judges: Dr. Bob Erlenbusch, Policy Director for the Sacramento Housing Alliance; Sister Libby Fernandez, RSM, executive director of Sacramento Loaves and Fishes; Dr. Sherry Magee, professor at the University of LaVerne; The Honorable Robert Twiss, Juvenile Felony Trial Division of the California State Superior Court; and Blake Young, president and CEO of the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Serivces.

Thanks to everyone who helped make the 2011 PSR/Sacramento Scholarship Essay Contest a success, and, especially, to all the students who entered the contest.

Special thanks to Media Edge for filming the event and to Steve Walker for the sound system engineering.