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PV student wins national honor

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By Mary Louise Speer | Friday, June 01, 2007 | No comments posted

Kelsey Hull

“In the current war in Uganda, children are kidnapped and forced to commit acts that are illegal and against civil rights ...” Kelsey Hull wrote in her essay about “The Past and Present facts about Child Soldiers.”

Kelsey, a student at Pleasant Valley High School, never expected to receive a national award for a research paper written for a sophomore English class. She is the daughter of Christopher and Peggy Hull, of Bettendorf.

“It’s kind of like a special feeling. I put tons of work into this paper,” Kelsey said. “It was a good feeling knowing all that work paid off and did affect someone, somewhere.”

In April, she received a letter that said she won aN honorable mention in the United States Institute of Peace 2006-07 national peace essay contest. The institute is based in Washington, D.C.

“We hope your participation in the contest marks only the beginning of your interest in programs concerned with international conflict management and peacemaking,” institute president Richard Solomon said in a notification letter to Kelsey.

The topic for the Institute of Peace’s 2006-2007 essay contest was “Youth and Violent Conflict.”

“I wrote about how it isn’t fair that children are being involved in these situations, and they’re being brainwashed,” Kelsey said.

Teacher Shawn Rice often submits students’ work to contests and several have had their work included in poetry anthologies and other publications, she said. Having a student place in a national competition was quite a thrill, she said.

Kelsey wrote about the children pressed into service in the Ugandan civil war that began in the early 1980s and the experience of youths involved in the Hitler Youth program.

Certainly, the two groups faced different challenges. In Uganda, for example, kidnapped girls were forced to become sex slaves to the army, and as a consequence, many become child-mothers. The Northern Uganda Child Legal Defense Project provides legal aid for youth in Uganda, Kelsey wrote.

Hitler Youth programs encouraged physical accomplishments and reshaped — brainwashed —children’s values into the Nazi idealism, she said.

Part of the contest requirements called for students to come up with ideas for programs to help children transitioning from their war experiences to life afterward. Having counselors who speak their language would help the children victims in Uganda, she said..

Contact the Bettendorf News at (563) 383-2396 or bettnews@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at www.qctimes.com..