Olpe students take 75 percent of awards in state Learning Quest essay contest
By Bobbi Mlynar
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Three students at Olpe High School have put Olpe on the map for judges in the state’s recent Learning Quest contest.
Olpe teacher Michelle Barnhart said that she’d been told the judges had to go to Mapquest to find out where Olpe was located after her students won three of the four prizes awarded in this year’s Learning Quest essay contest.
The winning students — Dalten Benton, Natalie Kuhlmann and Lee Redeker — were members of Barnhart’s classes that were assigned to write essays for the competition. All of Barnhart’s seventh- and eighth-graders — 60 students — submitted entries from the Olpe school.
Kuhlmann and Redeker, who placed first in eighth- and seventh-grade categories, respectively, each received a $1,000 credit for Learning Quest accounts.
Benton placed second in the seventh-grade division and received $500 for her Learning Quest account. The money can be used only for post-secondary education.
They received their awards Tuesday afternoon from Kansas Treasurer Lynn Jenkins of Topeka, who came to Olpe for the presentation during the Fall Recognition Rally.
Jenkins told the audience that approximately 650 entries had been received for the contest. Judging was done “blindly,” she said, without the judges’ knowledge of who submitted the entry or what school the student represented. Judges were amazed when they learned that 75 percent of the winners they’d chosen came from Olpe.
“That is just unbelievable,” Jenkins told students at the assembly. “Give yourselves a hand. I don’t know what your parents are feeding you; I don’t know what your teachers are teaching you — but keep it up. ... You have the attention of lots of us in Topeka.”
Barnhart said that it can be difficult to coax youngsters into writing essays, and that entering contests is one way to encourage them to write.
“You might as well put some incentive behind it if you can,” Barnhart said.
When she discovered the Learning Quest contest on the Internet, she pursued its link to the state treasurer’s office, which had posted a news release with details.
The criteria were limited. The essays could not be more than 250 words each on one subject: “What’s your favorite subject, and who inspired you in that subject area?” Barnhart said.
This contest held incentives for everyone, plus a bonus. Because three of their classmates placed in the contest, the state will give the class a pizza party from Wheat State Pizza, the choice of the students.
“We all win this way,” Barnhart said.
Details about Learning Quest accounts are available online at learningquest.com, which is the Kansas version of the 529 college saving plans offered by every state in the United States. LQ accounts are similar to 401k accounts, but can only be used for post-secondary education. It carries tax benefits for parents and grandparents who save for future college expenses of their children and grandchildren.