Cesar Chavez Essay Participation Details and Prompts in English/Spanish (PDF)
Our students are invited to participate in BUSD’s annual César Chávez Essay Contest, in honor of the César Chávez Commemoration Period, which begins with the Spring Equinox on March 20th and runs through April 23.
The Essay Contest will run April 7-18th, and all 2nd through 12th grade students are encouraged to participate.
ESSAY PROMPTS 2014
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Core Value: Respect for Life and the Environment
Respect that holds as sacred the land, the people, and all other forms of life. “However important the struggle is and however much misery and poverty and degradation exist, we know that it cannot be more important than one human life.”
–Cesar E Chavez
Prompt:
Cesar Chavez dedicated his life to the nonviolent struggle for farm worker’s rights. Cesar’s passion for this cause grew out of his childhood experience of working in the fields alongside his family and witnessing the injustices that farm workers faced. His dream was that one day all workers would be treated with dignity and respect and paid a decent wage.
Write about a cause that is important to you or a dream that you have to make this world a better place.
MIDDLE/ HIGH SCHOOL
Core Value: A Preference to Help the Most Needy
A concerted effort to support programs that reach the most needy, the most dispossessed, the most forgotten people in society no matter how difficult the challenge that choice may bring.
“We are tired of words, of betrayals; of indifference …the years are gone when the farm worker said nothing and did nothing to help himself…Now we have new faith. Through our strong will, our movement is changing these conditions…We shall be heard.”
– Cesar E. Chavez
Prompt:
Please discuss what you have done in your personal life to support the most needy and most forgotten persons in our society. How will providing healthcare and livable wages to America’s most needy strengthen or weaken our country’s future? How will a higher education experience give you the tools to help the forgotten people in our society?
For questions regarding the essay contest details, please phone (510-644-8991) or email Charity DaMarto in the Office of Family Engagement & Equity.