Three Manville High School students were the recipients of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) scholarship program. Kat Saburova, Nicole Bak, and Aaron Dixon submitted writing pieces to the VFW Voice of Democracy Essay Contest for this current school year and won.

This contest is open to students in grades 9-12 with about 40,000 students submitting their works by October 31 for nearly $2 million in scholarships and incentives. Students submit a writing piece along with an audio recording of their work dealing with a patriotic theme. The current years theme was, Why My Vote Matters.

The essay asked what makes America great. One of the winners from MHS, Nicole Bak’s essay focused on the American people and how we are able to set aside differences and become united especially in tragic times, such as 9/11. She also included the importance of our veterans and those currently serving in the military. There were many points you can make but she felt these were the most that appealed to her.

Nicole also communicated that she entered “because I am a senior who will be attending college next year and as many know, college is expensive. Any penny counts and this was one of the first opportunities for scholarships offered at MHS.”