Essay Contest Winners Announced

The Thomas and Corinne Nyquist Foundation has announced the winners of its annual essay contest.

The topic this year was “What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of social media,” and this year was a record number of submissions in Froid with nearly 30 submissions. The essays submitted were also about the highest quality we have yet had, making picking the winning essays especially difficult.

Froid winners were Lilly Johnson, first place, and Mara Salvevold, second place. Honorable mentions go to three others who also submitted excellent essays: Baylee Davidson, Dasani Nesbit and Kaidence Schod.

The judges had to say about Johnson’s essay that it was “well organized with good examples.” Regarding Salvevold’s essay, they felt that it had “very developed thoughts and good citations.”

The honorable mention essays included Davidson who “really laid out the pros and cons of social media,” Nesbit who “had super good organization and good examples,” and Schod who had “interesting facts that were entirely new to the readers.”

Award winning authors of the Culbertson contest were Sabastian Granbois, first, and Gavin Deen, second. Receiving honorable mentions were Haydn Hauenstein, Reese Moon and Mark Kirkaldie.

The judges had to say about Granbois’ essay that it was “not only well organized and thought through, but gave an interesting take on mental health issues associated with social media.” Regarding Deen’s, they felt that the whole “structure of the essay was excellent, and the arguments were also excellent.”

The honorable mention essays included Hauenstein who “took a side and argued the point well,” Moon who “thought outside the box and referenced global society and Night,” and Kirkaldie who had a “very well-organized essay.”

First-place essays are awarded $250 and second place receive $150.

Sheri Harvey, librarian at Froid Library, coordinates the Froid essay contest with the school and advertises it through the library. Leona Colvin, librarian at Culbertson Library, coordinated the Culbertson essay contest with the school and helps advertise it in the newspaper and elsewhere.

JayPee Umali, English teacher at Froid High School, and Shelly Salvevold, English teacher at Culbertson High School, also helped to energize their students to submit those excellent essays.

The Nyquist Foundation is a 503(c) nonprofit family foundation started by Tom and Corinne Nyquist in 2004 to give small grants to local nonprofit or governmental organizations in eastern Roosevelt County where Tom grew up, and New Paltz, N.Y., where he and Corinne lived as adults. For information on the Nyquist Foundation and application materials for grants, scholarships and the essay contest, visit www. nyquistfdtn.org. To communicate with the Nyquist Foundation, email Nyquist. foundation@gmail.com.