We are pleased to announce the winners for the last of the three essay contests for 2019. Before we announce the winners , we wanted to sincerely thank everyone that participated in the essay contest. 
Many of you shared very personal stories of the loss and pain experienced as a result of a motor vehicle accident. We wanted express our gratitude to you for sharing these personal experiences as difficult as it may have been to have written about them. Sharing your stories helps to educate others on the true implications of being involved in an accident and hopefully will prevent similar occurrences happening in the future. There were also many well written and researched essays which required time and effort to compose, and we wanted thank those of you who invested the time and effort to research the matter and submit an essay based on your findings.
A common theme which came up this round was the need for those who are involved in providing driver education to provide instruction which is more engaging and meaningful. There is definitely a lot truth to this. Driver education should not be boring but actually interesting and something taken more seriously. And to make this happen, we as providers of driver education also have a responsibility to devise better ways to impart how serious the task of driving is, and, more importantly, how devastating the results can be when driving is not taken seriously.
We enjoyed reading the submissions and will continue to share your stories, thoughts, and suggestions on what we can do to save lives and ensure the safety of all those that share our roadways.
And now to announce the winners for this contest. For most shared essay,with a whopping 46,285 shares, Wafaa Mohammad Ali Alkhowly, “ Goals and Context of Driving”. In the essay, Wafaa shares his insight on what is needed to ensure safety on our roads. Thank you for sharing your story Wafaa, great job!
Selecting the winner for staff favorite was difficult to say the least. In the end, each staff member selected their favorite, and one essay was randomly selected from the staff favorites. It was the only way to select our favorite, as there were so many great submissions. For staff favorite, Jordan Dahiya, ‘Risking Everything”. Jordan’s essay was a very candid account on the importance of driver education, and also the need on part of driver education providers to devise better ways to impart these skills onto to a new generation of drivers. There were some very good practical suggestions given which would have a meaningful impact. These suggestions being for parents to have a more open dialogue with their children about drinking and driving, and for there to be more group based and interactive teaching methods. Well done Jordan. We will definitely keep these suggestions in mind as we continue to develop our curriculum.
Great job to the both of you and congratulations!
We say this every year, but it bears repeating. Ideally there would be no need for scholarship contests, and each and every citizen would be assured a free college education.
As you know, a high school degree does not go too far these days, and to limit one’s access to a good education and their God given potential because of a lack of resources is truly unjust when we have the means to provide otherwise. So, this is also up to you —as we go into an election year, to declare that you wish for a college education be granted as a right for all and not just an option for some. You all will soon be or are now of voting age and your views can be put into law to bring about a better future for your generation and generations to come. I do hope you will get involved in bringing about this change. Bless you all. Thanks again to all participants.
