Winners of Catholic Textbook Project’s annual history essay contest for Catholic schools were announced this week.
“Thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s history essay contest. We received many excellent entries from parochial, private, and home schools. Choosing the winners is never easy, and it wasn’t this year, either!,” announced Michael Van Hecke, founder and president of the Catholic Textbook Project. 
“Every entry testified to the strength and worth of Catholic education,” Van Hecke adds. “Every entry also testified to the parents, teachers, and administrators who have done so much to help students grow. Together, they made the contest one of the high points of our year.”
The 2023 history essay contest challenges
This year’s history essay contest for Catholic students consisted of the following challenges:
- Fourth graders were asked to write about one of the following topics: 1.) Their state’s history, including the history of the Catholic Church in their state. 2.) An important person to the history of their state, or 3.) An important historical site in their state.
- Fifth graders were asked to write about a historical character born before 1950 from North America who made an impact on the Church and country.z>Sixth graders were asked to choose a country they would like to visit, research the country’s history, and write about two places of historical interest that they would like to visit and why.
- Seventh and eighth graders were asked to choose a non-North American historical character who made their most important historical contribution between 300 A.D.–1900 A.D. and relate how that person influenced the time and place in which they lived.
- High schoolers were asked to describe an important historical event, the key players, its outcome, and how it changed history.
The 2023 history essay winners
Winning students include Fourth graders Anna Hargett of Tennessee and Javier Molina of California; Fifth graders Julian Crace of Tennessee, and Alex Thompson of Illinois; Sixth graders Natalia Braga of Texas, and Miranda Ponkow of South Carolina; Seventh/Eighth graders Thomas Lanthier of Illinois and Bridget Kauffman of Washington state; and high schoolers Gianna Pasquale of North Carolina and Antonia Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.
Topics chosen by these winners included “How the Sinking of the Lusitania affected the First World War,” “A Humble Bride of Christ: St. Birgitta of Sweden”, “Two Refolutions: Liberty and Liberalism”; “The Legendary Story of Fr. Patrick Ryan”‘ “Getting it Dunn for Tennessee”; “The Life of St. John Newman”; “The Prophet of Nature” and more.
Easily see the list of winners and easily read each essay here: https://www.catholictextbookproject.com/essay-contest
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