PUC’s Essay Contest Succeeds & Celebrates Creative Writing

The English Department at Pacific Union College received 230 entries for its fourth annual high school essay contest. With this many students submitting their stories, the Emerging Voices of the Pacific Union has grown tremendously in the last few years, surpassing last year’s total of about 103 submissions. “We host the contest with the aim of encouraging young writers to continue pursuing their craft,” said PUC English Department Chair Emily Logan. “We read every single essay with care.”

With more essays to read, the department added two more judges to dissect each essay that focused on a meaningful memory associated with one of the five senses. Alongside Logan, the selection committee included Education Chair and English Professor Jennifer Peñaflorida, Assistant Professor of English Leah Dopp, English Professor Linda Gill, Vice President for Academic Administration Lindsay Hayasaka, and Adjunct English Professor of Art History Karl Wilcox. As they dissected each original story, only three students could be awarded.

Boi Dinh (Daisy) Quan from San Gabriel Academy won first place after greatly impressing the judges with her essay titled “Journey in a Bowl,” which she wrote with a focus on all the sensations simply by enjoying a bowl of pho. “I got chills when I came to the part of the essay where she describes the pho as ‘liquid history,” Logan shared. Quan will be awarded $500 and a $1,000 scholarship.

Coming in second place was Valerie Quirarte from Pine Hills Adventist Academy. Her essay, “Hose Water,” instantly hit the judges within her first paragraph. In her essay, she described the taste of hose water as “an almost metallic tang that’s sharp and distinct, like hot pennies or the remnant scent left on your hands after sliding them down a sun-baked stair railing.” Through her thorough, detailed writing in a nostalgic tone, Quirarte will receive $300 and a $1,000 scholarship.

Winning third place was Yeseina Tarango from San Gabriel Academy. Logan shared that she and the other judges admired the “strategic use of the second-person reflexive voice to describe the speaker’s experience of rejecting their parents’ native language” in her essay titled “Blocking Out the Words.” Her interesting narrative created a distancing effect, mirroring the distance the speaker feels from their family and culture as a result of this choice. Tarango will be awarded $200 and a $1,000 scholarship.

“We received many beautifully written essays that engaged with the contest prompt in creative ways, so it was definitely a challenge to select just three winners!” said Logan. “What ultimately set the three winners apart was their vivid use of sensory details, as well as the overall quality of the prose, from the selection of words to the phrasing of sentences.” In a world with AI, while the judges were able to recognize some generative-AI use, Logan shared they read the essays in good faith, trusting students to submit their work with good intentions. “We see this contest as a celebration of creativity and assume that students submitting to the contest are excited to share their original work, created without any AI assistance.”

By participating in PUC’s high school essay contest, Logan hopes these students experience the joy of creative writing and sharing their personal work with a wider audience. Although it can be daunting to have others read private stories, these students showcase the courage to share their creative ideas, whether they win or not. Through these talented students who wrote about faith, loss, and all the difficulties life brings, they certainly have a bright future ahead. Logan hopes that this contest continues to be a platform for young writers in the Pacific Union to tell their stories and know their writing is taken seriously.

Emerging Voices of the Pacific Union will continue next year and is open to high school students attending a Seventh-day Adventist Academy or junior academy in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, or Hawaii. For more information, please visit puc.edu/life-at-puc/high-school-programs/creative-writing-essay-contest