Rotary reveals essay winners
The Liberty Lake Centennial Rotary Club has announced its 2007 essay contest scholarship winners.
Winners were required to be seniors in high school, to have attended the Leadership Summit on Ethics held last October at Gonzaga University and to answer five essay questions on the scholarship application.
Emmily Eisenrich of Lewis and Clark High School was awarded the grand prize and a $5,000 scholarship. She plans to attend Whitworth University next year.
First runner-up honors and $2,500 went to Theodore Newell, also of LC, and Brittney Gerard of University High School. Newell plans to attend the University of Washington next year, while Gerard plans to go to Eastern Washington University.
Second runners-up were Nick Johnson of the Coeur d’Alene Academy; Hannah Murphy of the Mead Education Partnership Program, who plans to attend Whitworth next year; and Amanda Tilley of North Central High School, who will continue in the Running Start program at EWU next year. Each received $1,000.
Third runner-up was Angela Tilley, twin sister of Amanda Tilley, who also will continue in the Running Start program at EWU next year. She received $500.
The Leadership Summit included four basic seminars and several smaller break-out sessions. Topics included courage, conduct and character, friends and decision-making, and lessons Llearned.
Scholarship essay questions included topics raised at the Leadership Summitas well as broad questions such as “Who are you and what do you represent?”
In one of his essay responses, Newell stated. “The verification of my ethical principles was the most valuable thing I learned from this summit.” This demonstrates the summit’s goal of enforcing strong values in its participants and strengthening positive character traits.
Gerard, writing about what she had learned at the summit, said it had helped her “listen to, love and grow from everyone I meet.”
Ron Schutz, co-founder of the program with David Kaplan and one of the judges for the awards, said learning to understand other individuals is “one of the underlying themes of the conference.”
One of the main motives for putting together the Leadership Summit and scholarship program hinged on the founding principle of Rotary: promoting high ethical standards.
Scholarship winners were presented with their prize moneys at a Rotary luncheon June 14.