Student Winners Named in TEAM Westport's Teen Diversity Essay Contest

WESTPORT, CT - Local students who attend Choate Rosemary Hall, Staples High School and Green Farms Academy have won the 2016 TEAM Westport’s Teen Diversity Essay Contest, organizers announced.

The annual contest, which is co-sponsored with the Westport Library, is open to high school students who reside in Westport or who attend school in Westport. This year, in light of the many recent demonstrations in cities and on college campuses, participants were asked "to consider the state of race relations in our country, 'both the nature of the problem and the appropriate way to address divisions and inequities in our society.'"

Choate senior Jacob Klegar won First Prize ($1,000) for the second year in a row, with his essay “The Black Lives Matter Movement: Past, Present, and Future.” In it, Klegar advocated focusing on the nation’s youth, particularly on putting them in “actual diverse environments from a young age.” He noted that “one of the biggest obstacles to solving our America’s race problem is the segregation of black and white communities…”

He also advocated promoting open dialogue among high school and college students as a way to help students understand each other’s opinions—provided all opinions were welcome and listened to, according to organizers.

Staples student Ellie Shapiro won second place ($750) for her personal essay where she reflected on her own journey as she has faced the privileges afforded her as a white person living in an affluent community, her struggles to understand the realities of African American lives, and her continual work to acknowledge and combat her own racism.

Green Farms student Ali Tritschler won third place ($500) with an essay in which she, too, described her personal journey toward understanding her own position of privilege, the discrimination experienced by African Americans, and the causes of the many recent demonstrations against police actions and discrimination.

The prize winners read their essays on Monday, May 16, at the Awards Ceremony in the Westport Library McManus room. Jim Marpe, Westport’s First Selectman, and William Harmer, Director of the Westport Library, were present to honor the winners. Harold Bailey, TEAM Westport’s Chair since its founding in 2004, presented the prizes.

“TEAM Westport and the Library co-sponsor this annual contest in order to help focus Westport teenagers on the challenges facing our increasingly diverse society and to encourage them to think seriously about their own potential role in making our society both welcome and value the diversity of its citizens,” said Bailey in a statement.

Added Marpe, “TEAM Westport continues to play a critical role in reminding all Westporters that we live in a world that is increasingly diverse and where our individual actions can make an important difference in improving the quality of our local community as well as the world at large. The winning essays do an excellent job of making the case for individual action in addressing the ongoing challenges of achieving true diversity in a world that often seems polarized and unchanging. All the students who entered the essay contest are to be congratulated for their thoughtful perspectives on very difficult issues.”

Copies of the winning essays will be posted to the TEAM Westport website at www.teamwestport.org.

Photo: From left, Harold Bailey, Chair of TEAM Westport; Ellie Shapiro (Staples HS), 2nd place; Ali Tritschler (Green's Farms Academy), 3rd place; Jacob Klegar (Choate Rosemary Hall), 1st place for the second year in a row; and First Selectman Jim Marpe. Photo credit: Contributed