3 Students to Be Honored for Essays on Immigrants
Three Los Angeles elementary school students will be honored Sunday as the local winners of the second annual U.S. essay contest “Why I’m Glad America Is a Nation of Immigrants”
Sponsored by the American Immigration Lawyers Assn. and the American Immigration Law Foundation, the event at the Marriott Grande Hotel will recognize the essays of fifth-graders Mandi Steiner of Pomelo Drive Elementary, Rachel West of Wonderland Avenue School, and Peggy Sue Deaven of Community Magnet School. Theu will receive $200, $100 and $50 respectively.
Steiner’s first-place entry was a poem that included the stanza: “We can learn so many things/about all the cultures that we meet/that we can travel without wings/by talking to new friends on our street.”
“The purpose of the contest is to create awareness among youths about the benefits of immigration for the United States,” said contest organizer Alice Yardum-Hunter.
In addition to the essay winners, a special award will be presented to high school student David Soloveichik, a Russian immigrant who recently scored a perfect 1600 on the SAT exam.
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