Discovery Elementary fourth-grader Rylee Smith, Stockdale Elementary fifth-grader Tiffany Yeh and Endeavour Elementary sixth-grader Andrew Beard emerged as Bank of America Essay and Speech Contest winners among 29 of the best essayist-speakers who competed in the annual event held May 8 at University Square in Bakersfield. Each convinced the judges they should be their grade level champion by delivering a three-to-five minute speech from an essay they had previously written on the topic, "Who Is Your Modern Day Hero." Approximately 600 Kern County students had written classroom essays on the topic. Each county English and language arts region could nominate only one classroom essay per grade level. The top 29 essayists, as determined by a panel of judges from the Kern County Superintendent of Schools’ (KCSOS) Curriculum, Instruction and Accountability department, were picked to compete in the speech portion of the contest. Bank of America’s South Sierra Valley Market and KCSOS sponsor the competition, which awards savings bonds in the amounts of $100 for first place, $75 for second and $50 for third. Smith said priest, Father Craig Harrison, was her hero. A man who Smith characterized as "conducting at least eight funerals a week and at each one he finds a unique way to touch each person and ease their pain. He even adopted seven children when no one else would look after them," Smith said. More