October is Hispanic Heritage Month and to commemorate the month the Nebraska Latino American Commission held the 14th annual Hispanic Heritage Month Essay Contest. Students from across the state filled out a permission slip that were signed by their parent/guardian and then wrote an essay. The essay had to follow the contest guidelines and respond to the prompt. The prompt was about the COVID 19 pandemic and how it has changed your life and it was also about how people will look back at this time a hundred years from now.

 According to Schuyler Central High School 11th grade English teacher, Drey Keairnes, the winners are chosen by a panel of essay scorers from the Nebraska Latino American Commission.  The panel chose Schuyler Central High School’s 11th grade student, Vanessa Uriostegui as one of the winners of the contest. Vanessa stated “I think I was the winner of this contest because my writing skills are pretty good and I put a lot of thought into this essay since it was taken for an English class grade”. As a contest winner, Vanessa had her picture taken with Lieutenant Governor Mike Foley and received an award and a $300 scholarship.