Harwood student among finalists in Sanders essay contest

March 25, 2025  |  By Waterbury Roundabout 

A Harwood Union High School junior is among the students recognized by Sen. Bernie Sanders for having a top entry in the senator’s 15th annual State of the Union Essay Contest. 

Sanders’ office recently announced the winners chosen from 475 entries from Vermont high school students. 

The contest asks high school students to describe a major issue facing our country and to propose what they would do to solve it. The contest is timed to coincide with the president’s annual address to a joint session of Congress, which took place on Tuesday, March 4.

This year, 475 students from 25 Vermont high schools submitted essays, according to Sanders’ office. A panel of nine Vermont educators served as volunteer judges, ranking the essays and selecting 12 finalists and three winners. 

Harwood junior Mackenzie Russell was named one of the dozen finalists. 

Since Sanders started the contest, more than 6,600 students representing almost every high school in the state have written essays about issues such as climate change, access to mental health care, immigration reform, the housing crisis, political polarization, and the cost of higher education.

“In difficult times, what makes me most hopeful is seeing young people engaged, thinking critically about the challenges we face as a country,” Sanders said. “Thank you to all the students who participated in this year’s contest. I look forward to hearing from the finalists and discussing their ideas about how move forward on some very important issues.”

Sanders has invited the 15 winners and finalists and their families to join him for a roundtable discussion at the Vermont State House this Saturday, March 29. Sanders has also entered the finalists’ essays into the Congressional Record, the official archive of the U.S. Congress. 

The winners of this year’s contest were: 

• First place: Justason Lahue, a junior at Burr and Burton Academy who wrote about the effects of social media on adolescents’ mental health and proposed a bill to make 16 the age at which adolescents may sign up for online social media websites. 

• Second place: Ari Glasser, a junior at Essex High School who wrote about the influence of billionaires in the U.S. political system and proposed a wealth tax. 

• Third place: Ely White, a Leland and Gray Union Middle High School senior who wrote about political polarization and advocated for ranked-choice voting. 

Mackenzie Russell’s essay is about a shortage of public school teachers and it supports federal legislation setting a base minimum salary for teachers along with sabbaticals and retention bonuses to increase the ranks of teachers. 

The other finalists named were (in alphabetical order by last name): Winooski High School senior Leo Beebe, Essex High School junior Emilee Brownell, Mount Mansfield Union High School junior Sofia Bush, Woodstock Union High School junior Aleksandra Cirovic, Mount Mansfield Union High School junior Allie Hamilton, South Burlington High School freshman Mia Konefal, Twinfield Union School senior Hazel O’Brien, Milton High School senior Hannah Smiley, Vermont Commons School senior Winslow Solomon, Bellows Free Academy Fairfax senior Owen Stygles and Oxbow High School junior Amy Vaughan. 

Read all of the 15 winning and finalist essays online here and learn more about opportunities for Vermont students through Sanders’ office online here.