DAR announces winners of annual education contests
Feb. 4 gala will take place in Agoura Hills

The Conejo Valley Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution has announced the winners of the annual education contests.

An awards gala is scheduled for 7 p.m. Mon., Feb. 4 at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Agoura Hills. Each winner will receive a monetary gift and certificate at the event.

•In the American History Essay Contest, the following students from Chaparral Middle School in Moorpark won first place in their age category: Nicholas Baltaxe, eighth grade; Ethan Greenfeld, seventh grade; and Joseph Cronin, sixth grade.

Applicants wrote a 600 to 1,000 word essay on "I Spy: Espionage During the American Revolution."

•Andrew Chen of Oak Park High School won first place in the Christopher Columbus Essay Contest.

Contestants wrote a 750word essay on "How did the four voyages of Columbus change our perception of geography and alter world economics." This contest is jointly sponsored by the National Italian American Foundation.

•Amanda Christine Turk of La Reina High School in Thousand Oaks was selected by her school for the Good Citizen Program. She also won first place in the Good Citizen Scholarship Essay Contest, which entitles her to compete nationally for a $3,000 scholarship.

Claire Desmond of Oak Park High School and Angela Chen of Moorpark High School received Good Citizen Awards from their respective schools.

The Good Citizen program is open to senior class students to reward the qualities of good citizenship, defined as dependability, service, leadership and patriotism.

The contests were open to students in public, private, parochial or accredited home schools in the Moorpark, Oak Park and Conejo Valley Unified school districts. The Good Citizen Program does not include home-schooled students.

For more information about this year's winners or next year's contests, call Elizabeth Lee, education contest chair, at (805) 497-9900.