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COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
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| Children from Ms. O’Connor’s Sycamore Elementary School kindergarten class accept their award during last Thursday’s Making Change Contest awards ceremony. |
Claremont students embrace change
For almost 20 years, an annual contest has been held within Claremont that has allowed students city-wide to honor and remember men and women that have impacted the world in a significant way.
More than 500 Claremont students have submitted drawings, collages, letters, essays and poems paying tribute to figures who made noteworthy contributions in the city’s Making Change Contest.
The culmination of the contest came last Thursday in the Alexander Hughes CommunityCenter with the winners being announced for both individual and group categories in an evening reception. In attendance were Claremont Human Services Division Chair Gwen Carr, multiple city council members and Claremont Unified School District board members, principals, teachers, parents and students.
“This is not a one night event,” Ms. Carr told the students in attendance. “It’s our hope that the work you’re doing about peace and non-violence is something that you’ll carry on throughout your life.”
Mohandas Gandhi, Coretta Scott King, Elie Wiesel, Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks were just a few of the men and women who were the main subjects of the winning selections. Some of the selections also focused on parents and family friends of the contestants.
The winners were all presented with savings bonds and certificates with each of the winners also receiving a certificate of participation. Individual winners were Chaparral Elementary School 4th grader Anjali Purohit, Mountain View Elementary School 5th grader Douglas Mendelsohn, Condit Elementary School 6th grader Edward Kropf, El Roble Intermediate School 8th grader Kristina Leopold, Claremont High School freshman Henry Falotico and San Antonio High School senior Loc Le.
Anjali said she views Mr. Gandhi as one of the biggest champions of civil rights and admires the historical figure for his non-violent approach. In her letter, she also explained how she used Mr. Gandhi’s approach when she began attending Chaparral and was treated differently because of her Indian background. As a result of a positive outlook, Anjali now enjoys many friendships at the school.
“I learned a lot about Gandhi when I was a small child,” Anjali explained. “One of the reasons I chose him is because I’m Indian like he was. He made big contributions for civil rights.”
In what was the only poem within the individual winners, Kristina’s A Woman of Change selection focused on the contributions to the Civil Rights Movement by Ms. Parks. The 8th grader has a great deal of respect for the civil rights figure and expressed it in one of her favorite styles.
“She stepped up for what she believed in,” Kristina pointed out. “And the reason why I wrote a poem is because I’ve been writing poetry since I was 7 years old. Plus, writing a poem rather than a letter or essay allows me to be more creative.” (story continues below)
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COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
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| A poster entitled Our Hands Will Change the World hangs inside the Alexander Hughes Community Center in Claremont at Thursday night’s Making Change Contest awards ceremony. |
For Loc, participating in this year’s Making Change contest provided a learning experience about a civil rights activist that he had only known by name before. Through working on his winning essay about Ms. King, the San Antonio High senior developed a greater appreciation for the wife of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
“To me, the whole essay contest was about Martin Luther King Jr. and black history, so the next person I thought of was his wife,” Loc said. “When I started researching, I didn’t know anything about her. I just knew that she was his wife and that’s all. But now I see that she helped him do a lot and she did a lot herself in civil rights.”
There were a total of 6 winners in the group category with Sycamore Elementary School teacher Ann O’Connor’s kindergarten class, Chaparral first-grade teacher Linda Carr Handley’s class, Chaparral second-grade teacher Jennifer Kilpatrick’s class, the late Oakmont 3rd grade teacher Charliemae Randolph’s class, Ms. Lyn’s 8th-grade class and San Antonio English teacher Ace Gonzalez’ class all being recognized on Thursday. The group projects were a collection of collages and drawings that emphasized the themes of peace, dreams, love and nonviolence.
The winning kindergarten entry entitled Our Hands Will Change the World, featured handprints from Ms. O’Connor’s kindergarten students along with the names of Mr. King, Ms. Tubman, Ms. Parks and John Henry. Next to the names were also symbols of what each of the 4 represented.
“It was fun and they got a lot out of it,” Ms. O’Connor said.
Mr. King was also the subject of the winning 3rd-grade entry, produced by Ms. Randolph’s class. Along with pictures of Mr. King on a blue sky background were clouds containing the thoughts of the 3rd graders beginning with the phrase “I Dream.”
“If there ever was a teacher who deserved this award, it’s Ms. Randolph,” said Oakmont Principal Kevin Ward. “It’s very fitting and her students did a wonderful job of honoring their teacher.”
—Landus Rigsby
