FAAWIS High School Essay Contest
By Patrick Moloney

From LeftL Rebecca Abraham. Patrick Moloney, Gino Fabian,
and Dr. Mina Vitangcol

FAAWIS hosted an essay contest, Proud of my Filipino Heritage, for eligible high school students. The contest was announced at the annual picnic in July and deadline for submissions was December 7, 2008.  The essays were judged on content, style, grammatical accuracy and organization.

Thanks to: Mimi Ballesteros and the FAAWIS Board for enthusiastically embracing the idea and sponsoring the cash prizes; Roger Austria, who conceived the essay theme and developed the competition rules and rubric; Rebecca Abraham and Dr. Mina Vitangcol, who alongside myself, served as judges; and to the  high school students who took up the challenge and submitted an entry.

    Gino Fabian, a junior at Nicolet High School (HS), whose essay will be published in the next issue of this newsletter, took first place and received a $200 cash prize. Abigail Wickman, a home-schooled sophomore, won second prize, $100.  John Ballesteros, a senior at Nicolet HS and Phillip Berger, a 9th grader at Wisconsin Lutheran HS, tied for third place, and were both awarded $50.

     We hope to make this a yearly contest that will also include middle school students.

 ▲Gino Fabian - First Place


▲Abigail Wickman - 2nd Place


▲John Ballesteros - Co-3rd Place