April 13, 2006
CYPRESS FALLS HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT WINS OPRAH WINFREY HOLOCAUST ESSAY CONTEST
Kevin Johnson , senior at Cypress Falls High School, is one of 50 winners who will gather in Chicago on April 24 for the taping of a segment of The Oprah Winfrey Show that will air in May.
Kevin will not only get the opportunity to meet Oprah Winfrey, but will also have the privilege to meet Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize winner and renowned author of the bestseller Night, the acclaimed memoir about Auschwitz—one of Winfrey’s latest selections in her popular book club.
Kevin entered an essay contest about Night as an extra credit assignment in Jane Johndrow’s Advanced Placement English course.
“The only extra credit that I allow is for the students to enter a prose or poetry contest,” Johndrow said. “I heard about the contest on the Oprah show and posted the information.”
The students, Johnson said, took it upon themselves to send in their work. Students were asked to write 1,000 words or less on why Night is relevant today.
“As I was writing the essay and forming my organization and structure, I was appalled by today's examples of abuse and cruelty and what I read in Night,” Kevin said. “The author’s purpose in writing the book is so that history would not repeat itself.”
Kevin’s essay was selected from among 55,000 essays that were entered.
“I read Kevin’s essay before he sent it and thought it was very good. I especially thought his
organization and attention to the prompt was superior,” Johndrow said.
The judging process included first a group of college and high school teachers read and graded the essay on a scale of 1-10, narrowing the field to 100—then the producers of the Oprah show chose 50 winners.
“We are absolutely ecstatic and very proud of Kevin for this achievement,” said Kevin’s mom Karen. “To have the opportunity to appear on The Oprah Show and to meet Oprah and Elie Wiesel is humbling. I believe this experience will be one of the greatest highlights of Kevin’s senior year.”
Kevin is in the top 5 percent of his graduating class and in the National Honor Society. He has participated in a summer NASA internship at the Johnson Space Center and is currently a member of Science Technology Engineering and Math program (STEM). His favorite hobby is to DJ for groups and parties and his future plan is to major in Engineering. Kevin has been accepted to University of Texas, Georgia Tech, and has applications pending with Princeton and Rice.
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