Photo of Vernon and Wyatt (3rd Place—Ages 8-12)
Vernon Rigdon is a 98-year-old World War II veteran who volunteered to fight on the front lines at age 18 and received many honors including the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. Mr. Rigdon was prompted to go to war in 1942 because he saw a newsreel showing Americans fighting the Japanese. The very next morning, he enrolled in the Marines and was sent to boot camp in San Diego... Because he had no wife or kids at the time, he always volunteered to be in the front of the line. His time on the battlefield ended in 1944 when he was positioned on a hill, and a sniper in a tree shot him in his lung. He lay bleeding for hours until he got medical help. Now he cannot fully lift up his arm.

His stories had never been written down, so I went to visit him in Kansas City to record him. This is a direct quote: "The purple heart is the medal every soldier wants, but they don't all want to pay the price for it." I took this photo of Vernon Rigdon showing his Marine dress uniform to his grandson, Wyatt Rigdon Schmidt. I am so grateful that we have people like him, and it has made me realize just how brave the people are who step up to protect this country that we know and love. It is important that we do not forget history.

It's Time For A Change (1st Place—Ages 13-18)
In 2022 I volunteered on Kina Collins’s campaign as a videographer and photographer... The most powerful moments of the campaign took place in the largely Black West and South sides of Chicago with everyday people. Our interaction with this woman demonstrates how powerful and inspiring Kina’s campaign was. The woman began by telling us her story. She had been a public-school teacher for decades and lived on the West Side in Austin her entire life. She loved her family and was proud of her community, but violence was only getting worse. Like many of the other voters we talked to, this woman had old ties to [Kina's opponent] Danny Davis. Enter Kina Collins, a young and determined activist from the West Side with a track record of making things happen... Kina discussed her vision to improve Chicago, and after the woman realized she was talking with a bad-ass change-maker who was actually going to fight for the West Side, I captured this beautiful moment...

[Davis] won by a slim margin of 7 percent. That 7 percent is the difference between the same status quo politics my district has had for far too long, and the new, genuine leadership Kina would have brought to the table. Civic action isn’t easy. It takes unbelievable determination. Thankfully, I know a girl from the West Side. She’s just getting started.

One Team. One Nation. (3rd Place Tie—Ages 13-18)
...At the September 10, 2021 varsity home football game, the Lancers remembered the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks with a moment of silence before the game honoring the sacrifices of so many. The student section wore American colors to celebrate the country’s resilience. Students and members of the community showed up to enjoy one of America’s pastimes with excitement and spirit.

...Just as the Lancers came together on a community level reshaping their focus and honing in on what they needed to do to win, so did the country after the 9/11 attacks. On that September day the whole nation was shook to the core. In the aftermath, however, people came together as Americans to face the tragedy together and rebuild.

First Place:
Briones, 17
James Baldwin

“James Baldwin is my civic hero because he has taught me that the beauty of American identity lies both in... the collective and individual; the complicated and straightforward; the perfect and imperfect; the terrible and great.”

Read Briones's story about James Baldwin.

Second place:
Maia, 17
Muriel Rukeyser

"Discovering Muriel Rukeyser and docupoetics was discovering a way writing could be important, could be part of a real cause…She had carried her cause off the page. It was mine, now, mine to care for and yell about."

Read Maia's story about Muriel Rukeyser.

1st Place

"I've drawn an ear of blue corn to honor the indigenous peoples of North America. The color of the kernels is a mix of the red, white and blue that we see on our current flag. The colors represent the hardiness, valor, innocence, purity, vigilance, perseverance, and justice of our country. The green of the husk signifies the earth and all that came before us, and on the ribbon it says, 'in radices speramus nobis,' which means, 'in our roots we trust,' in Latin."

Zoe, age 14

2nd Place

"My re-imagined American flag seeks to depict the tapestry which makes up American culture and history. The main piece is obviously the intertwined lines which translate the feeling of this tapestry onto the canvas of the flag. The two different lines crossing again and again reflect the diversity of Americans and... [their] interconnectedness. To retain and recognize the historical aspect of our flag, the 13 colonies are now represented by 13 stars which appear on the left of the flag. Finally, I retained the flag's traditional colors mostly untouched beyond a slight brightening to display an optimism about America's future."

Christopher, 18

3rd Place

" I depicted a group of people of varying backgrounds painting and altering the American Flag...The figures in my flag are working in collaboration with one another to make the changes they want to see, showing it is the power of the people to push for the policies, beliefs, and ideas that will positively impact them. This flag not only symbolizes the progress we have made as a nation but the progress we are still making today.
      I also wanted to include two people, to the right, that are retouching a tarnished American flag in order to restore and remind us of what America stands for: equality, justice, and liberty."

Milka, 17

1st Place

"I wanted to represent the diversity in the states and people in our country. I did this by hand cutting 50 unique and different stars to depict the differences in our beautiful states and a person's silhouette with 13 stripes in colors of the rainbow symbolizing our qualities and our individual personalities. After all, the world would be no fun if everyone and everything were the same."

Grace, Age 12

2nd Place

"The stars of the states are shown on 'Turtle Island' which is part of the Native American origin story for the American continent. Blue stripes are the streams to rivers of our nation flowing into the ocean, origin of all life on earth. Brown and white stripes are the diversity of our ethnic origins, flowing together with red stripes, our common blood."

Adeline, Age 9

3rd Place

"I cannot vote but my art expresses my understanding of our dreams and desires as US Citizens. My cultural background helps me realize how important it is that we are loved, we are shown kindness and everyone is honest with us."

Thomais, Age 12

Thank you so much to the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise & Public Policy at Vanderbilt University for sponsoring these prizes