Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
These seven students of Hurley K-12 School are winners of a recent Jalonen Writing Contest, an essay contest on morals and values that is named for a former teacher who started the annual event. From left are: first row, Haley Nyquist, Olivia France, Kylee Hewitt and Darian Bender; and second row, Jayme Harma, Antonio Cummings and Tanner Vogel.
By TOM LAVENTURE
Hurley - Seven Hurley K-12 students were recently honored for participating in the annual Jalonen Writing Contest.
A selection committee chose seven essays for top honors from among 40 contestants who wrote stories that were based on an interview with a family member or someone in the community, said Shannon Peterson, high school English teacher at Hurley K-12 School.
"The story had to teach a lesson or be based on values or morals," Peterson said.
These seven students honored for their work were Haley Nyquist, Olivia France, Kylee Hewitt, Darian Bender, Jayme Harma, Antonio Cummings and Tanner Vogel.
The writing could be about a family member, past or present, or someone in the community, a veteran, a nursing home resident, or anyone who has a story a student wanted to tell. The stories ranged from personal experiences that taught them about family values, the importance of education, honesty, integrity, hard work, kindness, bravery, or other life experience. The essays expressed what the student learned from an experience, to why it was important to them, or how it impacted their lives.
The students also addressed how the experience of writing about the experience was meaningful. The honorees received a cash award.
The former Heritage Essay Contest was established when Barb Winn made a $1,000 donation to the Hurley Education Foundation, Peterson said. It was later renamed for Elaine Jalonen, a foundation member who taught English and essay writing at Luther L. Wright High School for several years.
Jalonen valued education and was a devoted letter-writer to family and friends, she said. She was a 1947 graduate of Luther L. Wright High School, and was a school social worker in Illinois before returning to teach elementary education in Ironwood Public Schools, with a few breaks to teach at U.S. military schools in Japan and England, Fairbanks, Alaska, and Madison, Wisconsin, along with a Fulbright scholarship to the University of Oulu in Finland to teach conversational English. She retired to Montreal in 1989.
Peterson agreed to have her students write essays so that the writing contests could continue. Peterson and fellow teachers and foundation members review and select the honorees.
