Aldo Leopold Writing Contest Winners2017-2026 |
2026
CLICK ON STUDENT NAME TO READ ESSAY
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2026 Aldo Leopold Writing Contest TOPIC and PROMPT
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This year's contest features quotations by two environmental writers: Aldo Leopold, who believed that the idea of community should include humans, plants, animals, and the land, and Joy Harjo, an Indigenous writer, musician, and poet, who writes about humankind's connection to land. |
“It's possible to understand the world from studying a leaf. You can comprehend the laws of aerodynamics, mathematics, poetry and biology through the complex beauty of such a perfect structure. It's also possible to travel the whole globe and learn nothing.”
― Joy Harjo, The Woman Who Fell from The Sky: Poems
"The last word in ignorance is the [person] who says of an animal or plant, 'What good is it?'"
― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
― Joy Harjo, The Woman Who Fell from The Sky: Poems
"The last word in ignorance is the [person] who says of an animal or plant, 'What good is it?'"
― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
ESSAY PROMPT Using examples from your own experience, write about how we can learn important lessons by paying attention to the natural world. Be sure to reference both quotations in your essay.
GRADES 6-7
ANDREW TAN
Grade 6 Camino Real Middle School, Las Cruces Teacher: Ashleigh Sandoval |
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GRADES 8-9
CHINMAYI SUDHARSAN
Grade 9 McKinley Academy, Gallup Teacher: Margie Monderin |
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GRADES 10-12
MYA FLORES
Grade 11 Rio Grande High School, Albuquerque Teacher: Guadalupe Reyes |
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SPANISH WRITING CONTEST
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Winner of the Estella B. Leopold Memorial Award for Creativity
EVELYN ZAPATA
Grade 11 Albuquerque High School, Albuquerque Teacher: Sonia Balasch, Ph.D. |
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Awards of Special Merit
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Grades 6-7
Charlotte Galvis Nikolai Klimenko Althea Pak Amal Atieh Judah Hernden Olivia Waltermire Juliette Peckens Alyssa Pearce Evangelina Romo Violet Herrera-Furst |
Grades 8-9
Manjushri Graesser Alessia Dalvit Jayden Moya Elijah Girroir Hendrick Thompson Liam Follingstad-Hyde Lyndon Sorphapmixay Isabelle Dorman Mariah Vigil Sidney Charles |
Grades 10-12
Ariana Medina Jasmin Lozano Vasquez Imogene Patton Alex Burns Destiny Guevara Amberli Rodriguez Dusti Peterson Kemper White Tamira Burks |
2025
CLICK ON STUDENT NAME TO READ ESSAY
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2025 Aldo Leopold Writing Contest TOPIC and PROMPT
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“This song of the waters is audible to every ear, but there is other music in these hills, by no means audible to all. To hear even a few notes of it ... you must know the speech of hills and rivers … ─ ALDO LEOPOLD, “Song of the [Río] Gavilan” in A Sand County Almanac
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ESSAY PROMPT Write about the song or melody that you hear in a body of water (such as a stream, river, lake, acequia, ocean, etc.) and what you would answer back.
GRADES 6-7
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FIRST PLACE 
AMANE JANIS
Grade 6 La Mariposa Montessori School, Santa Fe Teacher: Alexa Rockwell |
GRADES 8-9
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FIRST PLACE 
EDWARD BIELEJEC
Grade 9 Albuquerque Academy, Abq Teacher: Emily Beenen |
GRADES 10-12
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FIRST PLACE
Winner of the David E. Stuart Humanitarian Award for Special Merit
ANA ALEXANDRESCU
Grade 11 Santa Fe Prep, Santa Fe Teacher: Drew Walker |
2024
CLICK ON STUDENT NAME TO READ ESSAY
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2024 Aldo Leopold Writing Contest TOPIC and PROMPT
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“Our tools are better than we are, and grow better faster than we do. They suffice to crack the atom, to command the tides. But they do not suffice for the oldest task in human history, to live on a piece of land without spoiling it.” ─ ALDO LEOPOLD, "Engineering and Conservation" (1938)
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Aldo Leopold is most widely known as the author of A Sand County Almanac (1949) in which he articulates his land ethic: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”
Today, we can look to Leopold’s writing to help guide us in addressing changing realities brought about by climate change, biodiversity loss, growing demand for fresh water, and other global environmental issues.
ESSAY PROMPT Are our tools better than we are?
Think about tools in your life. Do they help or hurt your relationship with our ecological community?
Today, we can look to Leopold’s writing to help guide us in addressing changing realities brought about by climate change, biodiversity loss, growing demand for fresh water, and other global environmental issues.
ESSAY PROMPT Are our tools better than we are?
Think about tools in your life. Do they help or hurt your relationship with our ecological community?
GRADES 6-7
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FIRST PLACE 
KAYSON WARNER
Grade 7 Yucca Middle School, Clovis Teacher: Michelle Gaut |
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GRADES 8-9
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FIRST PLACE 
DELILAH BAKER
Grade 9 La Cueva High School, Abq Teacher: Victoria Dixon |
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GRADES 10-12
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FIRST PLACE
Winner of the David E. Stuart Humanitarian Award for Special Merit
COLETTE LEE
Grade 11 Santa Fe Prep, Santa Fe Teacher: Drew Walker |
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2023
CLICK ON STUDENT NAME TO READ ESSAY
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2023 Aldo Leopold Writing Contest TOPIC and PROMPT
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“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.” ─ ALDO LEOPOLD, Foreward, A Sand County Almanac
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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?”
ESSAY PROMPT After 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?
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?”
ESSAY PROMPT After 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?
GRADES 6-7
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FIRST PLACE
ALESSANDRA SEAWRIGHT
Grade 6 La Mariposa Montessori School, Santa Fe Teacher: Katrina Holder |
HONORABLE MENTION 
ALIANA HARDY
Grade 7 Native American Community Academy, ABQ Teacher: Morgan Barraza |
HONORABLE MENTION 
EVELYN LEMON
Grade 6 La Mariposa Montessori School, Santa Fe Teacher: Katrina Holder |
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 |
HONORABLE MENTION 
MAIYA BROCK
Grade 9 New Mexico School for the Arts, Santa Fe Teacher: Rachel Mabe |
HONORABLE MENTION 
MARY HELEN BROWN
Grade 9 Rehoboth Christian High School, Rehoboth Teacher: DeLyssa Begay |
GRADES 10-12
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FIRST PLACE
BODHI LEWIS
Grade 10 Mandela International Magnet School, Santa Fe Teacher: Sairey Pickering |
HONORABLE MENTION 
SOFIA ALEXANDRESCU
Grade 11 Santa Fe Preparatory School, Santa Fe Teacher: Drew Walker |
HONORABLE MENTION 
MADELINE HOSTETLER
Grade 11 Rio Rancho High School, Rio Rancho Teacher: Jennifer Miyashiro |
2022
CLICK ON STUDENT NAME TO READ ESSAY
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2022 Aldo Leopold Writing Contest TOPIC and PROMPT
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“Land, then, is not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants, and animals … When a change occurs in one part of the circuit, many other parts must adjust themselves to it.” ─ ALDO LEOPOLD, “The Land Ethic,” A Sand County Almanac
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We are seeing climate changes disrupt the natural balance of this “circuit of soils, plants, and animals.” Unpredictable variations in temperature and rainfall in the Southwest are creating soil erosion, water scarcity, habitat loss, and more.
ESSAY PROMPT What actions have you taken to help “tend the land” (such as protecting soil, plants, animals, wildlife habitat, water sources, etc.), or what are your ideas for how you and other young people can help counteract the impacts of climate disruption on the different elements of your local environment?
ESSAY PROMPT What actions have you taken to help “tend the land” (such as protecting soil, plants, animals, wildlife habitat, water sources, etc.), or what are your ideas for how you and other young people can help counteract the impacts of climate disruption on the different elements of your local environment?
GRADES 6-7
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FIRST PLACE
ALEX HANNA, Grade 7
Albuquerque, Hanna Homeschool |
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GRADES 8-9
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FIRST PLACE
TIMOTHY RYER, Grade 9
Mandela International Magnet School, Santa Fe |
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GRADES 10-12
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FIRST PLACE
ELIOT PATTON, Grade 10
Albuquerque - Bosque School |
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2021
CLICK ON STUDENT NAME TO READ ESSAY
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2021 Aldo Leopold Writing Contest TOPIC and PROMPT
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“Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, but humbler folk may circumvent this restriction if they know how. To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither god nor poet; one need only own a good shovel.”
– ALDO LEOPOLD, “Pines Above the Snow,” A Sand County Almanac |
As the novel coronavirus spread in 2020, we needed to stay home. We had to turn back to familiar landscapes, reacquaint ourselves with our yards and neighborhoods, and look more closely at our own skies and landscapes.
“Using Leopold’s land ethic as a guidepost, think about lessons we can learn from staying home. What acts of creation – be that as poet or as planter – did you unexpectedly find yourself taking up, and how did your creations build on some of New Mexico’s senses of dwelling with the Earth, such as querencia, kinship, acequias, and aridity?”
GRADES 8-9
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FIRST PLACE
and Overall Best Essay 
DYLAN COMO-MOSCONI, Grade 8 Mandela International Magnet School, Santa Fe
Teacher: Holly Call |
HONORABLE MENTION 
CHARLES CHAPMAN, Grade 8
Mandela Int'l Magnet School, Santa Fe Teacher: Holly Call |
HONORABLE MENTION 
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GRADES 6-7
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FIRST PLACE
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GRADES 10-12
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FIRST PLACE
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2020
CLICK ON STUDENT NAME TO READ ESSAY
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GRADES 10-12
HONORABLE MENTION GRADES 10-12
Isabella Clark, Grade 11, Mandela International Magnet School (Santa Fe) Mireya Sanchez-Maes, Grade 12, Mayfield High School (Las Cruces) Sloan Tafoya, Grade 10, San Juan College High School (Farmington) |
GRADES 8-9
HONORABLE MENTION GRADES 8-9
Akansha Nanda, Grade 8, Mandela International Magnet School (Santa Fe) Maggi Van Drunen, Grade 9, Rehoboth Christian High School (Rehoboth) |
GRADES 6-7
HONORABLE MENTION GRADES 6-7
Dylan Como-Mosconi, Grade 7, Mandela International Magnet School (Santa Fe) Ruben Cuesta Ray, Grade 7, Monte del Sol Charter School (Santa Fe) Claire Johnston, Grade 7, Mandela International Magnet School (Santa Fe) |
2019
Click on image to read winning essay
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ADYA RADCLIFFE, GRADES 6-8
Grade 6 - Desert Willow Family School (ALBUQUERQUE) |
NIVEDITHA BALA, GRADES 9-10
Grade 10 - Mandela International Magnet School (SANTA FE) |
JESSE SMITH, GRADES 11-12
Grade 11 - Albuquerque Academy |
2017
Click on image to read winning essay
ISABELLA CLARK, GRADES 8-9
Mandela Independent Magnet School (SANTA FE) OVERALL BEST ESSAY |
TIGERLILLY WARNER, GRADES 6-7
Aldo Leopold Charter School (SILVER CITY) |
ABYGAIL MACCURDY, GRADES 10-12
Albuquerque High School |
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LEOPOLD WRITING PROGRAM
P.O. Box 40122 | Albuquerque, NM 87196 973.476.9112 LWP is a 501(c)3 organizationL |
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