VFW Awards Voices of Tomorrow

Six students from Ramapo and Indian Hills high schools were awarded scholarships by the Veterans of Foreign Wars for audio-essays each composed as part of the organization's Voice of Democracy contest. 

At last week's Board of Education meeting, Dominic Stimola, post advocate for VFW Post 5702 in Franklin Lakes, presented scholarship checks and certificates to the six students along with Joseph DelBuono, Ramapo's social studies supervisor, and Hank Bitten, Indian Hills' social studies supervisor.

Out of approximately 20 entries at each school, independent faculty committees selected three winners. Entries were evaluated on content, presentation and originality.

First-place winners Micaela Moffa from Ramapo and Zachary Cohen from Indian Hills won $125 scholarships from the VFW. Adrianna Brandes from Ramapo and Kimberly Charles from Indian Hills won second-place scholarships of $100. Jackie Shugard from Ramapo and Chloe Margherita from Indian Hills received third-place scholarships of $75.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars, an advocacy and service organization for veterans, has sponsored the Voice of Democracy scholarship competition nationally since 1947. The competition, in which students are asked to reflect on a topic pertaining to patriotism in a three- to five-minute audio-essay, has been held at Ramapo and Indian Hills high schools for the past 21 years.

This year's topic was on finding heroes in today's world. Previous years' topics have included honoring America's veterans.

"The contest is a way of asking high school students to reflect on the societies they live in," Stimola said. "They reflect their opinion of what the theme means to them."

Wyckoff resident Cohen, who is a senior at Indian Hills, wrote his winning essay on Greg Mortenson, the executive director of the Central Asia Institute, which builds schools for girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Cohen said the essay competition allows students to think about larger issues in society.

"A lot of kids in high school don't really think about the broader issues besides getting their homework done for the next day," he said. "It's really important to keep an eye open to these kinds of things—who are our heroes, what is the political process like, what has our military done, how we can support our military—all of these things we're going to vote on when we're 18, all of these things we're going to have to really know if we're going to be responsible citizens."

Each year, the VFW awards high school students throughout the country more than $3 million in scholarships through its Voice of Democracy contest.