Correction – A correction was made to properly describe a winner’s ethnicity, and a correction was made to clarify the headline.
Honoring the 2019 Jacaranda Essay Contest and The Donald Drury Award in Creative Writing winners, over 40 attendees gathered in the P building on May 16th thanks to the efforts of the Long Beach City College English Department and the Long Beach City College Foundation.
Complimentary pizza and pastries were offered in the English lounge to all who celebrated the winners.
The Jacaranda Essay Contest is comprised of top LBCC student-written essays in literature and composition, with essay style categories of expository, persuasive, and literary analysis.
The Donald Drury Award, awarded to students that write exemplary works of fiction or poetry, was created in the memory of a LBCC professor who died in 1989.
Kicking off the reception, a round of applause and a “thank you” were given to professors and administrators who helped judge the competitions.
Along with LBCC president Reagan Romali, Matt McGaw, Kathleen Scott, Lee Douglas, Brian Garcia, Debbie Whitaker, Beatrice Villa, Jennifer Kehret, Adira Edmund, Kathryn McMurray, and Daren Smoley participated in judging the entries for the Jacaranda Essay Contest, which was chaired by Allison Murray.
For the Drury Award, where Natalie Burgess served as chair, Jason Casem, Anthony Starros, and Jeff Douglas served as judges.
While originality was a key component that all of the winning entries had in common, according to Murray, the Jacaranda essays needed to have academic rigor and intellectual inquiry.
On the other hand, Burgess stated that the Drury Award writings should be creative, polished, and stand out from the rest in order to be true contenders for these awards.
The winners each received a monetary prize from the Long Beach City College Foundation ranging from $100 to $250.
Laura Wheeler announced the Jacaranda Essay Contest winners and read an excerpt from each prize-winning essay to the audience.
Emily Thompson, persuasive winner, wrote a piece called “Wonder Woman: An Idealized Tale of Female Sexual Curiosity”.
Roxanne Ebbat was the persuasive honorable mention recipient for her essay “Nourishing the Body and Spirit”.
In the essay, Ebbat reflected on her childhood growing up as an American of Philippine decent and used those memories to help explore the unhealthy relationships that people share with unnaturally healthy foods.
Ebbat took an English 3 class where she learned about food and how it is marketed and grown.
“My grandma was my first teacher. She taught me how to read, write, and eat. My first memory was her feeding me a spoonful of rice,” Ebbat said.
“The doctor said my grandma is going to outlive me and my sister because of the natural and healthy foods she eats.”
Next, Wheeler presented the expository winners as, John Arceno for his essay “Not a Real College: The Stigma of Community Colleges and the Role Society and School Districts Play in Perpetuating Negative Stereotypes Surrounding Junior Colleges” and the honorable mention essay titled “Let the Past Die: Killing the Gender Binary” by Yasmin Thompson.
When the time came to acknowledge the literature category, Wheeler made it a point to state that both essays were intricate, thoroughly researched and analyzed, and because of this they were both the winners.
Timothy J. Potter wrote “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A View to Britain’s Obscure Celtic Past.”
The poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” whose author is unknown, is what many consider to be a masterpiece of Middle English and Arthurian literature.
“I can see myself suggesting Potter’s piece to my classes so they can better understand this poem,” said Wheeler.
The second winning essay “The Nineteenth Century Romantics’ Influence on the Future of Civilization in Blade Runner” was written by Vuthy Huot.
Wheeler described Huot to have the glorious ability to analyze specific detail in a film.
The Drury Award winners were next to receive their certificates and prizes.
Burgess found it to be more impactful to have the winners come up to the podium and read their own pieces.
Before Kimberly Esslinger read her Drury Award winning collection of poems she made it a point to “shout out” Professor Jeff Epley.
The final Drury Award given went to Damon Vincent Moore II for his fiction story called “Here, Your Auntie’s Tears.”
“Here, Your Auntie’s Tears” is about an aunt going through a chain of heart wrenching and disappointing events with her son, who she ultimately has to watch get arrested.
Many audience members were moved to tears once Moore was finished reading his story.
“I teared up because Damon has been a student of mine for some time and just getting to see a student read his work, and to know how deeply vested he was in it, is a great thing to watch,” Burgess said.
The winning entries can be read online at https://www.lbcc.edu/jacaranda-essay-contest and https://www.lbcc.edu/donald-drury-award.