By Gia Hale
Hollister
– When asked to ponder the question,
”
How Will a Computer Change my Life?
”
three lucky middle school students wrote optimistic essays that
won them new computers and an answer to that question.
Hollister – When asked to ponder the question, “How Will a Computer Change my Life?” three lucky middle school students wrote optimistic essays that won them new computers and an answer to that question.
“If you want the honest truth, I was jumping and screaming,” eighth-grade winner Jazmine Alexis Velasquez said about finding out that she had won.
The YMCA facilitated the essay contest held at Marguerite Maze Middle School, where a student from each grade had a shot at winning a computer.
“I was so excited,” sixth-grade winner Yuliana Sanchez Flores said. “I can’t believe that I won.”
Flores wrote about her academic aspirations in her essay. She said she would use the computer to study rather than having to go to the library every day and that the computer would also allow her to help other people with their homework.
Seventh-grade winner Lauren Pesce said she also was surprised by the win.
“I felt very lucky,” Pesce said. “We only had one computer at home that we all had to share.”
Pesce, an aspiring artist, said she planned to use the computer to post her drawings on her own Web site and to draw with the computer programs.
Velasquez, now in ninth grade, said she wrote about needing the computer for high school, and she had a clear idea of what she’d be using it for the most.
“Typing – lots and lots of typing,” she said. “I really need to work on that.”
The contest winners and their parents attended the YMCA’s Eighth Annual Golf Tournament dinner, where they were honored for their winning essays.
“The YMCA was pleased and proud to help provide the opportunity for students to win quality computers from Fremont Investment and Loan,” Lou Bettencourt of the YMCA said.
YMCA Board of Managers Chair Margie Barrios presented the students with certificates for their computers as part of the evening’s ceremonies.
Barrios, who also serves on the Hollister School District Board of Trustees, noted that the Hollister School District was proud of the students’ effort put forth in the essay contest.
“It was awesome,” Flores said of the ceremony. “I got to meet a lot of people there thanking me for what I’d done.”
“It was actually really fun,” agreed Velasquez. “My parents and I met some really nice gentlemen.”
The new Hewlett-Packard computers were donated by Gary Dunn of Fremont Investment and Loan and came complete with HP printers. They are valued at more than $1,800 each.
