Adrianna Schnitzler, a Grade 7 student at E.S. Laird Middle School, centre is the first-place winner of a Black History Month essay competition led by the City of Lloydminster and partners. Presenting her with a certificate is left, Kemoh Mansaray, Lloydminster Local Immigration Partnership coordinator and right, Shauna Godin, program manager of Catholic Social Services. Geoff Lee Meridian Source
Delayed gratification is one of the lessons students in the Lloydminster public and Catholic school divisions are relishing from Black History Month studies this year.
The three top essay winners from a judged black history competition in February discovered it was worth waiting until last week to receive certificates of recognition from Mayor Gerald Aalbers.
Adrianna Schnitzler, a Grade 7 student at Bishop Lloyd Middle School was over the moon as the unanimous first-place winner.
“I was shocked because I’m a Grade 7, which is the lowest grade that could enter. It goes from Grade 7 and Grade 12 at LPSD, so that’s a lot of people who could win and it was me,” she said.
“I was absolutely shocked by that.”
The competition was sponsored by the city and its community partners with Schnitzler researching and writing about the late John Armstrong Howard.
“He was in the Olympics and he seemed like a pretty cool dude. I looked at all my options, like I Googled people and I had to find out if they were Canadian or not,” said Schnitzler.
Howard was Canada’s first black Olympian at the 1912 Olympics in Sweden and our top 100 and 200-metre runner from 1912-15.
“I eventually just choose him. I cited different sources and just kind of found out things about him,” explained Schnitzler.
His grandson, three-time Canadian Olympian Harry Jerome, won the bronze medal in the 100m race at the 1964 Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo, Japan.
Schnitzler says she’s been writing since the first grade.
“Since I could write, I’ve been writing stories,” she said, noting the essay theme was Black Excellence – A Heritage to Celebrate.
“What we wanted to do for Black History Month was have people write essays about somebody famous,” said Shauna Godin, program manager at Catholic Social Services.
“Then they had a panel judge the essays objectively, then pick the three top winners.”
“It’s a great opportunity for showing education in diversity and inclusion. I think it’s a great way to have so many participate in those grade levels.”
Kemoh Mansaray, Lloydminster Local Immigration Partnership co-ordinator says there were about 15 submissions and explained why all the judges made Schnitzler their top pick.
“The way she wrote it and I think you’ll see that in the comments from the judges. She personalized the experience and she read about John Howard,” said Mansaray.
“She has an inspiration to become a teacher. I think the judges looked at the style of writing as well.”
Shella Khan a Grade 8 E.S. Laird Middle School student, may have come to her runner-up essay naturally.
“I’d always have this passion for writing essays and just writing stories. This was actually easy for me, but I had to find bigger words since I was competing against older students,” said Khan.
She wrote about Sarah Nurse, who helped Canada win gold last Sunday at the recent IIHF World Women’s Hockey Championship and laces up for Toronto in the PWHL.
“The really cool thing is, I met her before,” said Khan referring to the time in 2022 when Nurse helped present her U13 Blazers girls hockey team with the Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup in Lloydminster.
“It was really cool since she was also the first Canadian black woman to win a gold medal in the Olympics,” said Khan who continues to play girls’ hockey.
The judges said, “A lot of detail was offered about Sarah Nurse and her impact on the game of hockey. What Sarah had to overcome was also detailed. There was little to no connection to this story by Shella herself. That would have been awesome.”
Looking back, Khan says she should have done that.
“I feel like if I had added more about me, it could have been a lot better and it could have won first place about how I play hockey and it’s better and stuff,” she said.
The third-place winner is Summer-Lee Campbell-Klassen, a Grade 7 student at Bishop Lloyd, who wrote about the late civil rights activist Viola Desmond from Nova Scotia.
