Local News - June 2003

N.C. contest winner is heading for D.C.

By JACOB RUDOLPH, Staff Writer

An east Lincoln student recently won a nation-wide essay contest and is headed to Washington D.C.

Erika Ulrich, a Rock Springs fifth-grader, won the contest with her 530-word essay In the Beginning –– Youth Violence.

She is the sole North Carolina winner and will meet up with about 40 other essayists from across the country in Washington in July.

Winning the contest came as no surprise to Ulrich, her parents or her teacher, Jacque Weaver, who will accompany her to the nation’s capitol.

“She told me from the beginning, ‘I’m going to win this contest and we’re going to Washington together,’” Weaver said.

The essay contest was sponsored by Starbase, an educational program, which focuses on math, science, technology and drug awareness.

Starbase visited Ulrich and her fellow Rock Springs fifth-graders in November of last year.

What she learned in that program stuck with Ulrich and helped her write the winning essay nearly five months later.

“I thought about what we learned (from Starbase) that week,” Ulrich said. “It really helped me write about this stuff.”

The theme for the essay contest was youth violence, a subject which is touched on by Starbase educators.

Essayists were asked to answer a few questions, including: What are the causes of and what can you do to stop youth violence?

Ulrich’s essay took an upbeat tone, drawing from her personal observations of violence to reach a mature conclusion.

“ … the causes of violence are numerous,” she wrote in her opening paragraph. “The good news is that there are solutions that can decrease violence and make the world a better place.”

While in Washington, Ulrich, Weaver and Starbase’s Barbara Miller will visit the White House, Capitol Hill, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, the National Zoo and the Baltimore Aquarium.

Officials at the Library of Congress will bind the winning Starbase essays and show the students where their works will be shelved.

Of all the activities they will cram into their short visit, Ulrich is looking forward to the White House tour and a scheduled visit from a foreign ambassador.

But she is keeping her success in perspective.

“I would not be too upset if I hadn’t won, because someone would have written a better essay than me,” Ulrich admitted. “But I really wanted to go to Washington.”

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Staff Writer Jacob Rudolph can be reached at 704-735-3031 or jacobrudolph@ltnews.com.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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