Thorner School fourth-grader Stephen Bush, Old River Elementary fifth-grader Acquila Maliyekkal and Endeavour Elementary sixth-grader Olivia Belda emerged as Bank of America Essay and Speech Contest winners among 25 of the best essayist-speakers who competed in the annual event held May 7 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. Fourth-graders had "Why is Volunteerism Important" as their topic. "Should Community Service be a Requirement for High School Graduation" was the topic for fifth and sixth-graders. Approximately 400 Kern County students had written classroom essays on the topics. Each county English and language arts region could nominate only one classroom essay per grade level. The top 25 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 Central California 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. More

Kern County students made history in Sacramento on May 3. Twelve won in their category at History Day in California, and the next stop for them will be National History Day from June 14-18 at the University of Maryland. Centennial High’s Sarah Moore, whose entry "Silently Leaving a Legacy: The Actions of Chiune Sugihara” was a winner in the Individual Documentary category, will be hoping to improve on last year’s ninth place finish at nationals. There will be other repeat performances on the national stage. Fruitvale Junior High’s Aaliyah Beed, Dylan Gonzales and Gabriela Forter all made it to Maryland last year. Beed and Gonzales were part of a Fruitvale Jr. High team that finished in fifth place in the Group Performance category. Forter was the county’s lone participant in the Individual Performance event. This year the trio joined forces and picked up two new recruits, classmates Richard Sottile and Madison Olinger, to finish first in Sacramento with their Group Performance "Elie Wiesel: A Survivor’s Legacy, A Messenger for Mankind.” The county’s other Group Performance team of Marissa Manos, Ramneet Sahota, Bianca Hinojosa, Calvin Laverty and Sameen Bramer from Fruitvale Junior High, was also victorious in Sacramento and will be moving on to Maryland. Their winning entry was "Sylvia Mendez: The Legacy of a Young Girl’s Fight for Equality in Education.” Making her first trip to the nationals will be Fruitvale Junior High’s Anne Bardet, who was victorious at History Day in California with her Individual Exhibit, "Mother Teresa: A Light in the Darkness.” More