Fourth Grader's Essay Wins Scholarship

When fourth-grader Gabriella Vega read her award-winning essay at Monday's Havre de Grace City Council meeting, a journalist in the room shuddered.

Suddenly, I feared I may have encountered my own replacement.

I was blown away by the student's writing—as well as her ability to read it confidently and with charisma in a room full of big people.

Gabby's mom shared her essay with me during a brief recess in the meeting, and I decided to re-type it for Patch readers to enjoy. 

I'll step aside and let the real writer take over from here:
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"Hi! My name is Gabriella Vega and I am a fourth grader at Havre de Grace Elementary School. I am choosing to write about a teacher that has inspired me through her hard work and her "never give up" attitude. Her name is Ms. Catherin Holmes and she teachers art.

Ms. Holmes is very creative. She has taught me how to use my imagination and that exaggerating makes art more fun. There are many examples she shows us in class and she tells us great stories about famous artwork and some of her own artwork. She takes lots of her own time to create items such as a lizard molas or a three-dimensional mask. Ms. Holmes carefully explains to us step-by-step how to make things and how little details like adding feathers or beads helps us to make our own creations. It is great to look at other's work but we need to invent our own. Never give up!

One day after school and homework, I was bored. I decided to draw and thought about Ms. Holmes. I remembered some of her ideas and tried drawing them and added my own twists to them. By the time I was finished, I had drawn 30 pages. She told us that our artwork makes good gifts to others and that every piece is important and worth a lot.

Another way Ms. Holmes has helped me to enjoy more about art is her patience and the way she helps us take our time without getting frustrated. Not rushing helps the imagination flow with more ideas. She has told us it does not matter what anyone else thinks about our art as long as we are proud of it and know we did our best. Keep trying and don't give up and art will happen.

Differences are a good thing which Ms. Holmes often tells my class. She has explained that there will be many differences in life and that we should never make fun of other people or their work because differences help make things unique. I thought about this and she is so right. There are differences in artwork, people's skin color, what people believe in and many others; however, differences aren't bad, just different.

I never thought I would enjoy art as much as I do. Ms. Holmes helped me to understand that even if I may not like something in the beginning, if I continue on and try to finish what I started, then I might be surprised in the end. She ahs told us that this is important in everything we do, which is the same thing my mom tells me. Try my best, never give up and I will go far! Thanks to Ms. Holmes for caring about us and being a great teacher of what she loves. She will continue to inspire me and help me grow."
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Ms. Holmes was in attendance Monday to hear Gabriella's essay.

Gabriella will attend an awards banquet on April 29 at Martin's West, where she will receive a medallion and have the honor of meeting Dr. Ben Carson.

TELL US: Has someone inspired you like Gabriella's art teacher has with her? Leave a comment.