{"id":201993,"date":"2026-05-25T16:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T16:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/201993\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T16:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T16:31:10","slug":"pennsylvania-high-schoolers-invited-to-enter-essay-contest-for-americas-250th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/201993\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania high schoolers invited to enter essay contest for America\u2019s 250th anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">An essay contest invites Pennsylvania high schoolers to reflect on the state\u2019s role in American history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cThis year, America turns 250 years old \u2014 and no state has shaped that story more than Pennsylvania,&#8221; Senator Dave McCormick said. \u201cOnly one state can claim the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed, where the most important battle of the Civil War was won, and where the Arsenal of Democracy was forged. As we celebrate this milestone, I want to hear from the next generation of Pennsylvanians \u2014 about the people who built this country, and about what they themselves intend to build next. I can\u2019t wait to read what they write.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The contest divides students into two divisions by grade level. Essays must be between 600 and 800 words long and address one of these two prompts:<\/p>\n<p>Prompt 1\u00a0\u2014 Choose a\u00a0Pennsylvanian, from any era and any\u00a0walk of life, whose story you believe every American should know. Who were they, what did they do, and what does their life reveal about what America is capable of at its best?Prompt 2\u00a0\u2014 The Founders\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0just celebrate 1776; they built something. As America turns 250, what is the one challenge you believe the next generation must solve to make America stronger at 300? What would you do about it?<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Students should email their essays to pa250@mccormick.senate.gov by July 4, using the subject line \u201c250th Essay \u2014 (Name, Grade, School, City).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Winners will be announced in late July. Authors should be comfortable with their essay, name, grade and school being made public, officials say. Runners-up and their essays will not be made public.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The winning essays will be entered into the Congressional Record, and their authors will get to meet Senator McCormick in Washington. McCormick will send a signed letter to the top runners-up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM CHANNEL 11 NEWS <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An essay contest invites Pennsylvania high schoolers to reflect on the state\u2019s role in American history. \u201cThis year,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[855,22264,21328,35490,8216,21094,89211,9794,1594,89212,227,89213,15263,14408,7683,68308,9799,26194,5864,89214,61126,16400,8040,21934,16401,3609,74185,28,30,29,523,4528,8780,87,1164,521,34205,31898,6984,29949,14468,89215,10603,20266,2184,10095,7212,38634,15276],"class_list":["post-201993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-academic","tag-adult","tag-asia","tag-asian","tag-book","tag-cellphone","tag-chinese","tag-classroom","tag-college","tag-cram","tag-education","tag-essay","tag-female","tag-girl","tag-hand","tag-handwriting","tag-homework","tag-japanese","tag-knowledge","tag-korean","tag-lady","tag-laptop","tag-library","tag-literature","tag-mobile","tag-one","tag-pen","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-people","tag-phone","tag-read","tag-report","tag-research","tag-school","tag-sitting","tag-smart","tag-student","tag-study","tag-table","tag-textbook","tag-university","tag-use","tag-woman","tag-women","tag-work","tag-writing","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}