2008 Student Winners
The winners of the Being an American Essay Contest have been announced! The winners, ten from each region, were recognized at the Being an American Student Awards Weekend in Washington, D.C. April 6-8, 2008.
West North Cental Region
 | Barbara Walkowiak “ The civic virtue of activism is the most important virtue because it is the stage from which all other virtues express themselves. If a person is unwilling to act upon their convictions, then their virtues are invisible.” |
 | Second Place - Stephanie Cahill “ "Benjamin Franklin observed, 'Genius without education is like silver in a mine.' My duty is to initiate the mining of my mind as I pursue understanding of American history…."” |
 | Third Place - Kelly Baston “ "...courage means being willing to stand alone for rights and values. Courage is so essential to America that the United States would not even exist without it. In its absence, the pilgrims never would have dared to sail to the New World and the founding fathers never would have attempted to create a new form of government. Truly, courage is vital to being an American."” |
 | Honorable Mention - Tom Marchant “ Perseverance is a sign of great men, and the sign of free men. It is only by God’s grace, and our forefathers’ perseverance that we can enjoy the privileges of freedom as we do today. As Daniel Webster once said, “God grants liberty only to those who love it and are always ready to defend it." The baton has been passed on to us. So the question is, will we persevere?” |
 | Honorable Mention - Colin O'Neil “ The American people’s greatest virtue is moral courage, the ability to think and act according to our own conscience especially when it is against opposition…. Our whole nation’s fight for independence was started by a single act of moral courage.” |
 | Honorable Mention - Colleen Pennington “ Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Men are respectable only as they respect.” Americans cannot just expect to live in a country where everyone is considered equal unless everyone is given equal treatment. For our country to truly be a nation of democracy and freedom, it must be based on a platform of understanding and respect.” |
 | Honorable Mention - Anna Rector “ Perseverance lies at the heart of American values because it is how we succeed in life. Our ability to never give up allows us to accomplish immense tasks that we never thought possible.” |
 | Honorable Mention - Alexandra Skarka “ Responsibility describes the inherent motivation uniting all Americans to establish “a more perfect union” in which personal freedoms are preserved and citizens are given equal opportunity in “the pursuit of happiness.”” |
 | Honorable Mention - Andrew Stuhl “ America draws its strength as a nation from the collective individuality of its citizens; in other words, though the notion may seem paradoxical at first, the struggle for individual identity is the most important civic value for any American.” |
 | Honorable Mention - Taylor Sutton “ The primary theme of equality and the rights they established as natural rights of all men--the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness--created a definition of America that would be protected by future generations through the value of charity.” |
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Supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation |
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