WASHINGTON, D.C. — Downingtown High School East junior Ronit Luthra won the upper-grade division of U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick’s statewide America250 Pennsylvania Youth Essay Contest, earning placement of his essay in the Congressional Record as the nation marks its 250th anniversary.
Luthra, an 11th-grade student from Downingtown, won Division II for students in grades 11 and 12. Brady Sirochman, a 10th-grade student at Laurel Highlands High School in Uniontown, won Division I for grades nine and 10.
The contest drew dozens of submissions from Pennsylvania high school students asked to examine the commonwealth’s role in American history and its contribution to the country. Entries were reviewed without identifying information by a panel consisting of McCormick, a Pennsylvania high school history teacher, and members of the senator’s staff, with McCormick selecting the winners.
Luthra focused his essay on Pittsburgh inventor and industrialist George Westinghouse and his role in the development and adoption of alternating-current electrical systems.
Luthra argued that Westinghouse deserves a more prominent place in the country’s historical memory, describing an America in which “a self-taught veteran with no advantages” could advance on the strength of his ideas and support other innovators.
Sirochman wrote about Uniontown native Gen. George C. Marshall, examining his military leadership during World War II and his subsequent diplomatic work associated with the Marshall Plan.
His essay presented Marshall’s military and diplomatic careers as complementary approaches to defending liberty, concluding that the country at its best understands the need for both “a soldier” and “a diplomat.”
Both winning essays were entered into the Congressional Record. Luthra and Sirochman also met with McCormick in Washington, D.C., where they received American flags that had flown over the U.S. Capitol on July 4. Top runners-up received signed letters of recognition.
“Brady and Ronit captured that in their essays — and in the process showed me that the Commonwealth is still producing the kind of people who will lead this country through its next 250 years,” McCormick stated.
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