Here are the essays written by University High School students hoping to win the White House “Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge.”

President Barack Obama will speak at the spring commencement for the winning school, to be announced later this spring.

In their application, Uni students had to explain how their school is unique and exemplifies “the best that our education system has to offer,” and how it teaches personal responsibility, promotes academic excellence and prepares them for college.

For Julie Wurth's story about Uni’s efforts, see Thursday’s News-Gazette.

Question 1:

It’s lunchtime at University Laboratory High School. We students sit on top of tables or in clusters of chairs lining the narrow hallways. We eat our lunches and chat with the principal. One of us plays the school’s guitar. We leave our lockers open, our textbooks unattended on shelves, and our backpacks strewn across the floor. Our school, “Uni,” is tiny – a five-year high school with only 300 students, but because of this, we feel close and we trust each other. In turn, the administration trusts us and grants us a tremendous amount of freedom. We organize and run lunch-hour clubs, which range from Kung Fu Movie Club to Habitat for Humanity Club. Every spring, the playwrights among us can direct their own plays.

Our classes also allow for freedom and self-expression. For instance, the Journalism class publishes a newspaper, the Online Gargoyle, which has served as a forum for discussing issues like racial tolerance at Uni. The Gargoyle’s censorship is minimal and Gargoyle reporters write blogs and columns to share their opinions about anything and everything. Another cool thing about the Gargoyle is that we can all get involved – any of us can write articles or contribute graphics. Similarly, our athletic teams are no-cut, which is great because then “the athletes” aren’t a strange and foreign subspecies. We’re big on inclusiveness at Uni.

We also love to channel our passion into every part of the school day. Our daily classes are pretty great – we take Genetics and Anthropology, and study things like Arabic at the local university – but for a week each February, regular classes are suspended and instead we go to classes taught by parents, alumni, our “real” teachers – and overwhelmingly by us. From “The Technical Side of Theatre” to “Economics of Discrimination” to “Bad Movies and Why We Like Them,” there’s –as they say – something for everyone, and there’s a chance for each of us to practice our responsibility and organization and leadership by planning and teaching a class.

We’ve also developed a community that encourages us to see beyond the walls of the school. And by that, we don’t mean that we look out the windows at the world - we want to contribute to our greater community. Practically every week we hold a food sale or a donation drive to benefit a charity organization. Global Studies Initiative, one of our clubs, sent a group of students to the Dominican Republic to build a house for immigrants. We also enthusiastically support the efforts of our other clubs, like United for Uganda, Students for a Better World, and the Food Pantry Club. After the January earthquake in Haiti, we raised $15,000 for the relief effort. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that outpouring of support? For what it’s worth, we think it’s pretty amazing.

Plus, the Assistant Director gives out free candy in her office every day. Seriously, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Question 2:

Many schools across the country offer a great education for students who show the potential and the willingness to learn. Uni High accomplishes this, but also teaches students the life skills necessary in today’s world. We are a diverse school with high academic standards and many opportunities to explore a variety of interests.

From eighth grade onwards, students are involved in projects that incorporate knowledge and life skills. The ongoing partnership with the University Radio station to create an Oral History Documentary that teaches interviewing, editing, teamwork, and responsibility skills is an example. Uni also has a plethora of student-led organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity and Food Pantry Club that give back to the community. Other groups allow students to put their budding ideas to practice, like the Inventor’s Club and Exploravision teams, which solve real world science problems. We also have many freedoms, including a student kitchen, lounge, elevator, and an open campus.

Providing students the opportunity to start clubs, work with the community, and apply their skills to real life situations equips Uni students to be responsible citizens and encourages them to pursue their passions to a future career through a college degree.

Question 3:

Students from Uni High are equipped with the tools needed to succeed in college, where 100% of them go after graduation. Starting from eighth grade, during which they spend much of their science course constructing a well-written term paper, the students are immersed in rigorous academic courses that not only ready them for the intensity of college, but also provide them with the opportunities to explore their own interests and figure out what they may want to major in. In addition, teachers are encouraged to utilize innovative strategies in the classroom to keep kids interested in the curriculum.

Besides the academics, our college counseling program does an excellent job of meeting the needs of individual students, which is partly due to our small school environment. Students have the options to attend brown baggers on a variety of topics, from majoring in business to college athletics. Thus, Uni Students enter college prepared to handle the workload and with a good idea of the field they want to pursue.

Question 4:

Uni High is lucky to have teachers who love their subjects and develop new classroom approaches to express that passion. Not only do the teachers know their students by name, they also care about each student’s strengths, weaknesses, and overall well-being. All the teachers are accessible, outside the classroom, after school, during free periods, and through e-mail. The personal relationships between teachers and students provides an incentive to work harder. For example, students who struggle at math are able to go to the math offices, to ask questions on tests and homework assignments, and to improve their grades through revisions. These incentives for achieving make school less about grades but more about learning the actual material.

Along with the incentives to achieve, many classes at Uni are discussion based, especially in the humanities departments, and even if a class isn’t discussion based, questions and thoughts are widely encouraged. Questions and open discussions in the class room promote students to think freely, actively engage in public speaking and communication, and share their unique ways of thinking. The way the teachers and students interact is key to our school’s success and thirst for excellence.