Georgia Clark, 8th grade, submitted an essay earlier this year to the first-ever Congressional Writing Contest and was announced by Representative Miller-Meeks as one of the winners! The contest was open to elementary, middle, and high school students in Iowa's 1st District. Each writer submitted an essay on "What makes Iowa special?" Three winners were selected in each category, high school, middle school, and elementary school, Georgia was one of the middle school students selected! Her essay will be entered into the congressional record and she will be awarded a certificate and a US flag that was flown over the capital.
Georgia's Essay:
What Makes Iowa Special?
By: Georgia Clark
What makes Iowa special? It’s a simple question, yet there are countless intricate answers for it. There is one broad answer to the question, though, and that is the fact that Iowa is progressive. Iowa is a place that builds the future. The productivity, innovation, diversity, and beauty of Iowa prove that we are people that strive to make our state, our country, and our world a better place.
A huge way that we help our world is providing for it. We feed the world! Our farmers produce bountiful amounts of corn, soybeans, pork, poultry, eggs, beef, you name it! We are hard-working people, each and every one of us, and we use our labor to provide for the people of this great nation.
Another way we show our progressiveness, is how much we value diversity, and equality. Iowa was the first state to allow women to own property, and the University of Iowa was the first state university to allow women to procure degrees. In 1868, Iowa banned segregated schools, making us the second state in the nation to do so. Iowa was also the third state in the country to guarantee marriage equality for homosexual couples. In Iowa, we take big steps to ensure that all people have the right to be safe, happy, and free.
Yet another thing we value is the education of our people. Currently, Iowa is ranked as the eleventh best state for education in the country! Our universities are also very successful. In fact, the University of Iowa is in the top 100 universities in the nation! Iowa is home to the Iowa Writers Workshop, which is a highly esteemed creative writing program. It has trained thousands of incredible authors, and its graduates have claimed virtually every major literary award to exist. Iowa State is the first agricultural school in the country to allow both men and women to be taught together. Another thing in Iowa is our dual language program that we are implementing. In fact, West Liberty, the amazing little town I call home (go comets), was the first school district in the state to start the program! We just celebrated our program’s 25th anniversary, and we are still going strong!
After all this, I’d still like to bring us back to the question at hand. What makes Iowa special? What makes Iowa progressive? It is us. It is the people of Iowa. These strong, hard-working, benevolent people are what makes Iowa great. These people are the soul of Iowa.
So, what makes Iowa special? Us. We make it special.
So let’s continue.
-Georgia Clark
Representative Miller-Meeks delivered a speech to the House about the contest and announced the winners:
Congratulations Georgia, we are so very proud of you!