The Blount County Genealogical and Historical Society has announced winners of its second annual essay contest, open to high school students in all local high schools, including charter schools, private schools, public schools and homeschool associations. Awards were presented to the three winning students April 30 by officers of the BCGHS.
Zee Carnes, a homeschooled student, received the first-place prize of $500 for her essay, “The Cherokee Syllabary: A Turning Point in Native American Education, Geo-Political Communication, and Intra-Tribal Gender Relations; Historical Perspectives from Cherokee Women.” The essay will be published in the fall edition of the BCGHS’s publication, The Blount Journal.
Elianna Anastasia Smith, a homeschooled student, won the second-place award of $300 for her submission, “Thousands of Frozen Tears,” a creative nonfiction approach about the Cherokee removal from this area as see through the eyes of a mockingbird following their path along the Trail of Tears.
Caitlin Samples, a homeschooled student, took the third-place award of $200 for “William Blount, Frontiersman and Tennessean.”
Steve Wegner, BCGHS president, said, “The Blount County Genealogical and Historical Society wholeheartedly congratulates these three outstanding young ladies for their in-depth knowledge, research abilities and quality essay presentations that demonstrate their talents far beyond their young ages. We would also point out the support and encouragement of their parents and family members. This should give us great hope that young people like these three students with their leadership skills will leave this country in good hands.”
Judges’ remarks
David R. Duggan, chairman of the essay competition, was one of three essay judges, including Blount County Public Library Reference Librarian Brennan LeQuire and this reporter. Blount Journal Editor Tim Walker redacted any identifying information from the submissions until after the winners were chosen to assure no bias on the part of the judges.
Each judge praised the quality of work of the submissions.
“It’s been interesting to see the approaches the entrants have taken,” Duggan said. “Some have chosen what you might call ‘pure history,’ where they’ve done research and they’ve written about historical facts, whether it be about events or persons or places or things. Others have taken a creative approach to history by telling a fictional story that in turn communicates what the historical point is.”
LeQuire said, when judging the entries, “I really value the research — I look at how they did the research — and, of course, accuracy. I learned some facts I didn’t know from the essays. I also look at the flow of the essay. Is it well-written? Are there grammar errors? Are there run-on sentences?”
The choice of first, second and third places was unanimous. Judges cited the strong research and documentation of Zee Carnes’ first-place entry as well as the quality of writing. “The breadth of the research was impressive,” LeQuire said. “To me, it showed a real interest, a passion for it.”
Duggan said the writing style and technicality of Carnes’ submission led him to choose her essay for the top prize.
Elianna Smith’s second-place entry and Caitlin Samples’ third-place entry also received favorable remarks.
“The second-place entry took a very interesting creative approach and told a good story, communicating some important things about the Trail of Tears that I didn’t know, and did it in a creative way,” Duggan said. “Third-place was also historically solid, writing about an important historical figure with some good research.”
Encouraging interest in history, genealogy
Duggan said the purpose of the essay contest is to encourage young people, specifically high school-age students, to develop an interest in local history and genealogy.
“We as the Society thought one of the best things we could do to encourage this interest would be to sponsor an essay competition where they are asked to write about Blount County history, Tennessee history or Blount County genealogy,” he said. “BCGHS appropriated $500 for the winner, and for two years consecutively, the same couple in Blount County, after reading about the essay competition in The Daily Times, contacted BCGHS and said they would like to anonymously provide a matching $500 that the Society could use however it wanted to. It could make a $1,000 first prize or it could offer second and third prizes. We opted to award second and third prizes.”
BCGHS hopes for more widespread participation in future essay contests. “We would like for school administrators, teachers and librarians to enthusiastically encourage their students to enter the competition and participate,” Duggan said. Details on the third annual essay competition will be announced in late fall.
Learn more about BCGHS at www.blountcountytngenealogy.org.
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