Aldo Leopold Writing Contest Winners2023 |
Scroll down to view student photos and read their winning essays!
This Year's Essay TopicPlease consider the quotes below, and then respond to the ESSAY PROMPT that follows.
In “Returning the Gift,” Robin Wall Kimmerer writes:
We are showered every day with the gifts of the Earth, gifts we have neither earned nor paid for: air to breathe, nurturing rain, black soil, berries and honeybees, the tree that became this page, a bag of rice and the exuberance of a field of goldenrod and asters at full bloom.... . Though the Earth provides us with all that we need, we have created a consumption-driven economy that asks, “What more can we take from the Earth?" and almost never, “What does the Earth ask of us in return?”
Aldo Leopold, in his foreword to A Sand County Almanac, writes:
We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.
Essay PromptAfter reflecting on Kimmerer’s and Leopold’s thoughts about our relationship to the land, what do you see as your role in returning the Earth’s gifts?
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2023 AWARDS
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Award-Winning Students
Click on PHOTO to read student's essay
GRADES 6-7
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FIRST PLACE
ALESSANDRA SEAWRIGHT
Grade 6 La Mariposa Montessori School, Santa Fe Teacher: Katrina Holder |
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GRADES 8-9
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FIRST PLACE
Winner of the David E. Stuart Humanitarian Award for Special Merit
FRANCES ANDERSON
Grade 8 Santa Fe Girls' School, Santa Fe Teacher: Olivia Carril |
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GRADES 10-12
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FIRST PLACE
BODHI LEWIS
Grade 10 Mandela International Magnet School, Santa Fe Teacher: Sairey Pickering |
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