“When contemplating our nation’s future, I must start at its beginning. Our forefathers believed in our natural human rights to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness.”

This is how senior Sara Nansel begins her VFW: Voice of Democracy Contest scholarship essay which she will read at three different events. The first event will be held on Nov. 11 at VFW’s Veterans Day Celebration for the general public. More than 100 people will be in attendance.

Nansel’s essay will also be read to VFW’s Seniors and Ladies Auxiliary.

“I had to write, record and submit my essay,” Nansel said. “It had to be between three and five minutes. The essay must also meet the three judging criteria of originality, content and delivery.”

Nansel said she was extremely devoted to the writing of her essay.

“It took me a total of about two months to write,” Nansel said. “It was difficult coming up with a topic to fit the prompt, ‘Why are you optimistic about our nation’s future?’ I had a lot of input from teachers, my parents and some other adults so I had to do a lot of revising.”

Nansel’s essay made it past the Post level which is the first level of the competition.

“My essay is on its way to District,” Nansel said. “If it wins there it will go to State and hopefully Nationals after that.”

Nansel hopes to make it farther in the competition.

“I feel fairly confident because I worked so hard on this essay,” Nansel said. “I have never worked so hard on something like this before and I got a lot of positive feedback from others.”

Despite her high hopes for the essay, Nansel would be satisfied with receiving smaller scholarships.

“It’s a little less money I will have to come up with for college,” Nansel said. “If I were to win the grand prize of $30,000 I wouldn’t even be able to describe how happy, honored and proud I would be. With that money, I would be able to go to college and not worry about money at all. I would graduate debt-free. That would lift that burden and worry from my shoulders and my parents’.”

Nansel already has plans for ways to spend her scholarship money.

“I would go to Fort Hays,” Nansel said. “It has the major I am interested in and it’s affordable. Both of my parents also went there so there is a little family tradition as well.”

Sara’s mother Nikki Nansel said she is very proud of Sara for taking the initiative to apply for scholarships, especially one of this magnitude.

“If she is awarded this scholarship, she will be presenting her essay at a national level and speaking in front of thousands of people,” Nikki said. “That is a great undertaking for a high school senior.  What she is doing makes my heart swell with pride.”

14rmoravek@usd489.com