The adult prompt/theme:

Dig in your heels and continue to fight or accept circumstances and move on? In your essay, describe one or more times when you have been faced with this dilemma, the outcomes and what you took away from these experiences.

The student prompt/theme:

Working for a cause: What cause (social cause, environmental cause, etc.) is most important to you, why is it important, and what do you do to support it? Are there actions you wish adults would take to help?

The winners:

Grades 3-5:
1st: It Is Important for Kids to Be Active by Violet Wolfgram, Jefferson ($30 award)
2nd: Wildfires by Lucy Bach, Roosevelt ($20 award)
Honorable Mentions:
Save the Turtles by Harper Brown, Roosevelt
Global Warming by Davis Hirt, Jefferson
Saving the Earth by Abby Wurzburger, McKinley
Littering by Ella Bonneau, McKinley
Black Lives Matter by Keira Conway, Roosevelt
Saving China’s Bamboo Forests by Sophia Basile, Roosevelt

Middle School Category:
1st: With Love, Your Local Feminist by Rilyn Paul, Whitman ($50 award)
2nd: Love is Love by Charlie Nunag, Longfellow MSTEM ($30 award)
Honorable Mention: Safer School—Education by Aarna Tyagi, Whitman

High School Category:
1st: Heads in the Sand by Ana Oliver, Tosa East ($75 award)

Adult Category:
1st: Advocate Like a Mother by Lani Knutson ($100 award)
2nd: Rising Through the Color Code by Shalini Khare ($60 award)
Honorable Mention: Entering the Twilight Zone by Catherine McArthur