Announcing the 2021 HelpTeaching.com Scholarship Finalists
- 22 July, 2021 //
- Announcements //
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It’s that time of year again, where HelpTeaching.com holds its annual scholarship competition for aspiring writers! We put out a call for high school and college students to submit their short stories and informational texts aimed at children. The prize? A $1,000 prize to be paid to their learning institution.
We received around 1,000 submissions this year, and it was a tough job narrowing them down to our favorites! They were truly high calibre, interesting, creative, and fun to read. Some included themes of diversity and acceptance, others explained topics from how the stegosaurus was discovered to clever ways astronauts have used velcro! With each round of narrowing down our finalists, the task got even harder to choose the final winner. So, what we’ve done is compile a list of our top contenders and the piece we declared the winner.
Congratulations to all of the finalists and the 2021 HelpTeaching.com Scholarship winner!
10 The Day the Sidewalk Quacked
The title of this story immediately piqued our interest to read more. A sweet story of community-building, problem-solving, and teamwork Boise State University Junior, Ashlee Vanliew, tells the story of a duckling in need and getting it back to its mother. You can read the story here.
9 An Earful on the Human Hearing System
How much do you think you know about how humans hear? Grad student Marisa Kolanovic writes an informative article that details the workings of hearing. The complex system is described clearly and in an accessible way, bringing new appreciation to a sense many of us take for granted. Read the article here.
8 Meet the Stegosaurus
Dinosaurs are an area of fascination for many children, and kids surprise parents and teachers alike at pronouncing their names and reciting their attributes! We enjoyed this story about the discovery and description of the Stegosaurus, by seventeen-year-old Eva Ternovska. It’s a piece your students will love reading. Read the piece >>
7 The New Girl Victoria / La Niña Nueve, Victoria
Teaching students about diversity and inclusion is more important than ever, and we loved this story where language barriers are overcome creatively and friendships are forged with the help of technology. Read University Junior, Yanely Itzel Bolanos’, story here.
6 What is Kabuki?
Written by high school senior Hannah Cargo, this informational article explores Japanese Kabuki theatre. It’s wonderfully descriptive and educational about a style of theatre and acting that may seem quite foreign to those more used to method acting we commonly see on TV and in movies. Read Hannah’s piece here.
5 The Science of Accidents
This informational piece by University of Arizona Freshman, Kathlyn Wise is full of interesting stories about the origins of significant scientific discoveries, useful everyday objects, and life-saving medicine. Kathlyn is an incoming freshman at Wheaton College. Read the piece >>
4 The Lifecycle of a Star
Seventeen-year-old Jaden Klein deftly sums up the science of a star, clearly explaining the chemistry and physics behind the billions of twinkling stars in our galaxy. Read the piece >>
3 The Fainting Jar
Collecting is a past-time that many of us enjoy, and this delightful story by 16-year-old Avery Rose Nowowiejski caught our attention for its uniqueness, well-crafted story-telling, literary references, and pure charm. Click here to learn about Amy’s collection of faints in The Fainting Jar.
2 To Unbake a Cake
“Mom?” Aidan poked his head into the kitchen, a book tucked under his arm. “How would you unbake a cake?” We really enjoyed this novel approach to explaining chemistry concepts for reactions and states of matter by university sophomore Karen Zhang. It was well written, interesting to read, and clearly explained the science. Well done, Karen! Read the full story here.
THE WINNER!
1 The Origin of Money
Money is something we use everyday and it makes the modern world turn. But have you ever thought about how the system evolved? We loved how well written and explained this piece by 10th grader Crystal Ojiako was. Click to discover the Origin of Money.
