The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation announced on May 12 that Anna Dougherty, a sophomore at Paul VI High School in Haddonfield, has won the national John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest for High School Students. The winning essay describes the political courage of Dana Redd, mayor of Camden, when she made the decision to disband her city’s police force to form a county-run police department. (See abridged version.)
The annual Profile in Courage Essay Contest invites high school students from across the nation to write an essay on an act of political courage by a U.S. elected official. This year, 2,290 essays were submitted from students in 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and from U.S. citizens in China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Luxembourg, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Spain, South Korea and the United Kingdom.
Dougherty will receive a $10,000 scholarship award for her accomplishment which is a joint award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and John Hancock.
Dougherty participated in the contest as part of a class project. Her nominating teacher, Marlena Pittman, integrates the contest into her curriculum. More than 1,200 of her students have submitted essays since 2005.
When asked about her essay subject, Dougherty explained that she profiled Mayor Redd because she “wanted to learn more about a politician who made change happen locally.” Dougherty added, “Her work on police reform intrigued me as I hope to work in the criminal justice field as a medical examiner one day.”
Dougherty’s nominating teacher, Marlena Pittman, will receive a John F. Kennedy Public Service Grant in the amount of $500 to be used for school projects that encourage student leadership and civic engagement.
The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1984 to provide financial support, staffing, and creative resources for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, a presidential library administered by the National Archives and Records Administration.
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