Three Whitehall High School students received honorable mention honors in the annual student essay competition run by the Can We Talk? student dialogue initiative.

Steven Adams, a social studies teacher at WHS, shared his pride for Habib Leyos, a senior, and Zakhar Salamakha and Julia Schell, both sophomores, for their achievements. See their honorable mention award-winning essays below.

Can We Talk? is a program of the Committee of Seventy, Pennsylvania’s oldest and largest good government/civic education nonprofit. It offers resources and support for teachers to improve the quality of classroom conversation about current issues, support schools seeking community dialogue about challenging issues and hold regular interschool student dialogues.

The organization’s annual essay competition is tied to current events. This year’s topic was regarding the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. There were 38 entries from 16 high schools submitted.

The full prompt students wrote about was, “In this anniversary year, how well do you think the American people and their government are doing at upholding equality, human rights and ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’? Whether you think the picture is positive, negative or mixed, please provide a few examples to support your judgment.”

Laura Messamore, a senior from Baldwin School in Montgomery County, was awarded the grand prize and $500. The runners-up, each receiving $250, were Elizabeth Grohsman, a junior at Cheltenham High School; Yoyo Lu, a junior at Baldwin; and Alivia Watkins, a sophomore at Northwest Area High School.

Each of the honorable mention winners earned $100. In addition to the Whitehall winners, the other honorable mention winners were Nicole Diana Barrera, a senior at Mapletown High School; Violet Brooks, a freshman at Garney Valley High School; Camelia Floria, a senior at Abington High School; Harper Lawson, a junior at Baldwin; Eloise Levin, a senior at Springside-Chestnut Hill Academy; Mark Papakirk, a senior at Central Bucks South High School; Alexis Pinzarrone, a senior at North Penn High School; Madison Sheffer, a senior at Biglerville High School; Brady Sirochman, a freshman at Laurel Highlands High School; and Alexis Son, a junior at Manheim Township High School.

The essays were judged on quality and originality of ideas, quality and clarity of expression and proper syntax and grammar. The essay judges were Chris Satullo, co-director of Can We Talk? and former editorial page editor and columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer; Dr. Harris Sokoloff, Can We Talk? co-director and a teacher at the University of Pennsylvania; Michael Matza, an award-winning reporter, foreign correspondent and novelist; and Eileen Kenna, an award-winning journalist and hospital social worker.