CJ's Journey cinema for students Short Essay Contest
St. Louis FiLM FESTIVAL
And the winners are . . .
This year the CJ's Journey Foundation hosted a short essay contest in conjunction with the St. Louis Film Festival. Students whose classroom participated in the Cinema For Student's In-School Film Presentations program were eligible to enter the contest for a possible cash prize and publication. We are proud to announce our two winners for the 2014 Short Essay Contest. Each student will receive a cash prize of $125.
"Poets Positivity"
Faiza and her family are from Yemen, but came to America in hopes of finding a better life. Unfortunately they got the opposite.
Faiza was picked on in school because of her ethnicity. But through all the bullying and harassment she remained positive. Instead of responding with violence, she turned her problems into poetry.
A challenge that I'm facing now is self-confidence. I always speak my mind and I have no problem standing up for myself and what I believe in, but I'm my biggest critic. I'm always doubting myself. In whatever I do, more so in the work I produce. I constantly think "what's the point, you'll never be good enough." So I end up talking myself out of something before I even try. I've gotten better with this lately by keeping positive thoughts in my head and just young for it. Over-thinking is a bad habit of mine. It seems like the older I get the less anxiety I have, so I'll just continue to stay optimistic until I've conquered this challenge.
Raven Manahan
Ritenour Middle
Eighth Grade - Mr. Goldman
Faiza and her family are from Yemen, but came to America in hopes of finding a better life. Unfortunately they got the opposite.
Faiza was picked on in school because of her ethnicity. But through all the bullying and harassment she remained positive. Instead of responding with violence, she turned her problems into poetry.
A challenge that I'm facing now is self-confidence. I always speak my mind and I have no problem standing up for myself and what I believe in, but I'm my biggest critic. I'm always doubting myself. In whatever I do, more so in the work I produce. I constantly think "what's the point, you'll never be good enough." So I end up talking myself out of something before I even try. I've gotten better with this lately by keeping positive thoughts in my head and just young for it. Over-thinking is a bad habit of mine. It seems like the older I get the less anxiety I have, so I'll just continue to stay optimistic until I've conquered this challenge.
Raven Manahan
Ritenour Middle
Eighth Grade - Mr. Goldman
"Prejudice"
Prejudice. A very popular word in light of recent events in our community, but is seems to be more than a word, a disease, maybe an epidemic. It's beginning to spread to anyone it comes in contact with, and seems to be running through our veins as if it were our own blood. Now you may say that you have never experienced prejudice or have been prejudiced, but everybody, every single person in this world has done or experienced both. Prejudice is simply defined as the preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. It could be something as simple as someone saying you're a Prep without actually knowing you, or as harsh as many Americans were to Muslims after 9/11, claiming that all Muslims were terrorists. A young Faiza Almontaser experienced this prejudice when she moved from Yemen to NYC after 9/11, Faiza became the center of bad attention at there school because of her Muslim beliefs and was in the middle of harsh prejudice. But, instead of letting the disease take control of her, she decided to stand against it. Faiza took refuge in poetry and began helping others that had experience prejudice by becoming a peer trainer with the Anti-Defamation League, teaching her classmates the dangers and repercussions of prejudice. Instead of letting this disease take control of her and being prejudiced towards others, Faiza focused her power on helping others and to helping stop this disease.
As I said earlier, we have all been victims of prejudice or have been the ones to dish it out. I myself have found myself in many prejudiced positions about my ethnicity, gender, intelligence or social standard; and most of us have experienced all of these, but they are often overlooked and seen as not a big deal. One of the most memorable ones for me though, was a couple years ago when some of my friends and I found ourselves in an ongoing prejudice situation. This problem had been happening for about a year and a half by now and it was starting to take its toll on some people I knew. It all branched from a couple girls labeling me and a group of my fiends as Preps, not seeing this as a big deal we just ignored it. But as things began to progress more bullying stated happening: name calling, rumors, and even threats through social media. I will admit that we all reacted with sending some of that prejudice back in their direction, but I began to see that it was only making things worse. The problem and escalated so far that a couple of my friends were pulled out of school by their parents because they were afraid that their kid's safety was in jeopardy. After some time, I began to grow weary and tired of the problem and finally decided to do something to stop it. I asked to meet with the girls in a councilor's office to work our the problem. Although it didn't go as well as I had hoped, he had all learned that we were much more similar than we thought. I also began being a Peer Mediator and Anti-Bullying ambassador to help those that had been in similar situations. By getting the word out that being prejudiced and bullying is not okay, the girls stopped and everything his back to normal.
Faiza and I both overcame prejudice though communication, her with written words and I with spoken ones. Prejudice is not just some word, it's a disease and it's spreading. Everyone in this world can help stop this growing epidemic by simply communicating with each other and spreading awareness about this problem.
Dani Walters
Ritenour Middle
Eighth Grade - Mr. Goldman
Prejudice. A very popular word in light of recent events in our community, but is seems to be more than a word, a disease, maybe an epidemic. It's beginning to spread to anyone it comes in contact with, and seems to be running through our veins as if it were our own blood. Now you may say that you have never experienced prejudice or have been prejudiced, but everybody, every single person in this world has done or experienced both. Prejudice is simply defined as the preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. It could be something as simple as someone saying you're a Prep without actually knowing you, or as harsh as many Americans were to Muslims after 9/11, claiming that all Muslims were terrorists. A young Faiza Almontaser experienced this prejudice when she moved from Yemen to NYC after 9/11, Faiza became the center of bad attention at there school because of her Muslim beliefs and was in the middle of harsh prejudice. But, instead of letting the disease take control of her, she decided to stand against it. Faiza took refuge in poetry and began helping others that had experience prejudice by becoming a peer trainer with the Anti-Defamation League, teaching her classmates the dangers and repercussions of prejudice. Instead of letting this disease take control of her and being prejudiced towards others, Faiza focused her power on helping others and to helping stop this disease.
As I said earlier, we have all been victims of prejudice or have been the ones to dish it out. I myself have found myself in many prejudiced positions about my ethnicity, gender, intelligence or social standard; and most of us have experienced all of these, but they are often overlooked and seen as not a big deal. One of the most memorable ones for me though, was a couple years ago when some of my friends and I found ourselves in an ongoing prejudice situation. This problem had been happening for about a year and a half by now and it was starting to take its toll on some people I knew. It all branched from a couple girls labeling me and a group of my fiends as Preps, not seeing this as a big deal we just ignored it. But as things began to progress more bullying stated happening: name calling, rumors, and even threats through social media. I will admit that we all reacted with sending some of that prejudice back in their direction, but I began to see that it was only making things worse. The problem and escalated so far that a couple of my friends were pulled out of school by their parents because they were afraid that their kid's safety was in jeopardy. After some time, I began to grow weary and tired of the problem and finally decided to do something to stop it. I asked to meet with the girls in a councilor's office to work our the problem. Although it didn't go as well as I had hoped, he had all learned that we were much more similar than we thought. I also began being a Peer Mediator and Anti-Bullying ambassador to help those that had been in similar situations. By getting the word out that being prejudiced and bullying is not okay, the girls stopped and everything his back to normal.
Faiza and I both overcame prejudice though communication, her with written words and I with spoken ones. Prejudice is not just some word, it's a disease and it's spreading. Everyone in this world can help stop this growing epidemic by simply communicating with each other and spreading awareness about this problem.
Dani Walters
Ritenour Middle
Eighth Grade - Mr. Goldman
All materials are the students own work and do not represent the views of the CJ's Journey Foundation or the St. Louis Film Festival or their organizers. CJ's Journey is a registered 501(c)(3) organization helping children, teens, young adults and their families with the fight against Childhood Cancer. We work to spread awareness of this disease through community activities like the Journey Essay Contest.
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