APA's 2007-08 High School Essay Contest Winners Announced

Caroline Eaton Tracey

Jingkang Gao

Two students submitted equally outstanding essays in APA's 2007-08 High School Essay Contest, and both have been awarded first place prizes.

Caroline Eaton Tracey of Denver, Colorado, and Jingkang Gao of Slingerlands, New York, will each receive a $5,000 scholarship to the college they will attend and complementary attendance to one of the American Planning Association's National Planning Conferences over the next four years. The two overall winners were selected from more than 145 submissions.

Gao's essay, "Creating a Green Neighborhood in the Southern Region of Albany, New York," focused on adding sustainable elements into the community's existing Capital South Plan, including promoting walkable neighborhoods, incorporating energy efficient features, and using permeable materials.

Click here to read Gao's essay

Tracey's essay, "A Sustainable Future for Alamo Placita," detailed building upon Denver's existing Greenprint Denver sustainability plan with native plants, walkable corridors, and loans to help upgrade historic homes with energy efficient features.

Click here to read Tracey's essay

Ten additional students with excellent essays received an Honorable Mention and a $100 gift certificate to APA's Planningbooks.com:

Gabriel Filer from Middletown, Connecticut
Dave Myers from Rockwall, Texas
Alyssa Pagani from Broomall, Pennsylvania
Antwanette Wiley from San Diego, California
Charles Gyer from Houma, Louisiana
Christopher Britton from Chula Vista, California
Jeannette Greven from Columbus, Indiana
Stephany Remirez from San Diego, California
Cady Fontana from Ithaca, New York
Sue Gallardo from San Diego, California

This contest is intended to help high school students learn about planning in their local community and how they can become involved. APA thanks all the students who took time to research the topic and write their essays. APA will host this contest again for the 2008-09 school year. Please check back in the fall to see the new question and contest details.

About This Year's Contest

Creating a Green Neighborhood Plan
The American Planning Association's annual high school essay contest was open to students who were juniors or seniors during the 2007-08 academic year, including home schooled students or students enrolled in a high school equivalency program, and who were residents of the United States or a U.S. Territory or are U.S. citizens living abroad.

Objective
APA's goal in sponsoring this contest is to encourage high school students across the country to address some of the critical planning issues that are facing their own communities today. By responding to a challenging essay question, we hope that students will:

• Deepen their understanding of their own community;
• Learn how planning is part of the democratic process through which Americans can create communities of lasting value for residents today and for future generations;
• Develop an appreciation for the important role that elected officials, planning professionals, and citizens of all ages play in that process;
• See how the knowledge and skills they are acquiring in high school (and will continue to develop) will enable them to participate fully in the planning process wherever they may choose to live.

Theme
Each year, the essay contest focuses on a different topic. This year's theme was, "Great Streets, Great Neighborhoods: Greening Streets and Neighborhoods," in conjunction with National Community Planning Month.

The essay assignment was Creating a Green Neighborhood Plan. Through National Community Planning Month and the essay contest, APA is promoting awareness of all the elements that go into making a great neighborhood. To learn more about this issue and APA's programs, visit www.planning.org/ncpm.

Information and Application
All the contest and application information may be found in the following documents.

The three Rich Text Format (RTF) files linked below may be opened, saved, and edited in a variety of word processing programs, including Microsoft Word and WordPerfect. The PDFs require Acrobat Reader. You may use one of two methods to create copies of the RTF files on your computer:

• Click on a form name below and choose "save" or "save to disk" to download the file, OR
• PC users: Right click on the name of a form and select "save as" or "save target as" to download the file.

• Introduction to APA (rtf)
• Contest details and guidelines (rtf)
  (Click here to read details and guidelines online)
• Essay question (rtf)
  (Click here to read the essay question online)

If you have a problem accessing these documents or have general questions about the contest, please contact hsessayquestions@planning.org.

2006-07 Essay Contest Winners

Click here for the 2006-07 High School Essay Contest winners and the winning essay.