Latino History Essay Competition Added to UIL Academics
By Kate Y. Hector, Media Coordinator | Tuesday, October 02, 2012 9:28 AM
The Latino History Essay Competition will join the Barbara Jordan Historical Essay Competition as part of the University Interscholastic League’s growing list of academic events.
Both essay competitions originated in the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin, of which UIL is a department. With the addition of these contests, UIL now offers 24 academic competitions to member high schools across the state.
“Part of our strategic plan was that we look at areas where students have not participated historically and in order to address that, we took a hard look at the contests that are already in place,” UIL Executive Director Dr. Charles Breithaupt said. “The Barbara Jordan essay competition has a rich history and the Latino History essay contest, although in its infancy, brings great opportunity for Texas students to learn about topics beyond the classroom.”
The Latino History Essay Contest was held for the first time last year as the Historia y Comunidad essay contest. During its first year, only high school students in South Texas could participate in the competition. Now, the contest will be available to all UIL member schools.
The subject of all the essays should be “historical and cultural legacies of Latinos in Texas history.” Primary source research is strongly encouraged; students should look first to their own communities and even their families in exploring topics to write about. First person interviews are important sources.
All submissions will be sent to judges, who will select state finalists. The number of submissions will determine the number of state finalists. All state finalists will be eligible to apply for Texas Interscholastic League Foundation Scholarships, which awards more than $1 million in scholarships to more than 600 students each year.
“Students from any part of the state can enter and have their entries judged,” David Trussell, assistant academic director and contest administrator, said. “All students from all parts of the state will have the same opportunity to be a finalist.”
The entry deadline for both the Latino History Essay Competition and the Barbara Jordan Historical Essay Competition is March 1, 2013.
Academic Director Dr. David Stevens said he is excited about adding these events “where students don’t have to get on a bus and travel to another school across town, or in another city to sit down and take another test. Hopefully it is a more economical feasible way to add contests and to reach a much different population than we may be reaching with our other writing contests.”
Trussell said both competitions encourage students to explore contributions of historically underrepresented groups in Texas — African Americans and Latinos.
“Within their own families, students may have relatives, aunts, uncles, grandparents, who were involved in important events or movements in Texas history at the local level or at the state level that haven’t received a lot of attention,” Trussell said.
“When you study history, reading it in a textbook or even in an article from that period, it doesn’t resonate quite as much as if you are able to talk to someone who was actually there and who actually experienced what you’re writing about,” Trussell said. “That can really be eye-opening for students, to not only learn about something they didn’t know about, but to see their communities and the people they know in their communities in a whole different light. It will help them understand that there are important contributions that may not be well known but still had a major impact.”