High school students from Decatur, Grady and Seminole counties went head to head with their intellects and written communication skills in a two-hour competition as they vied for recognition and cash awards in the 23rd Annual Bainbridge College (BC) Essay Competition for High School Seniors.

Bainbridge High School competitors took first- and second-place awards and two honorable mentions, with the third-place going to Cairo High School.

Amanda “Mandy” Locke of Bainbridge captured first place with its $150 prize, and Jake Tobin of Climax took the second place $100 award. Honorable Mention certificates went to Olivia Reynolds and Meghan R. Vickers of Bainbridge.

Kahja Washington of Cairo won the $50 third-place award in the annual event sponsored by the BC Division of Arts and Sciences.

The competition and awards ceremony took place for the first time in the Charles H. Kirbo Regional Center on Main Campus. English faculty member Jay Snodgrass, who coordinated the event, announced the winners and presented each their framed certificates and BC T-shirts.

Working under the pressure of writing about one of four topics revealed at the start of the contest, the students had two hours to complete their work on the essays limited to 600 to 700 words. Essay topics ranged from discussing what rights should belong to every human being to discussing being in a horror film and whether it would be better to stay with a group or “go it alone.”

Essays were judged by BC faculty members Carol Adams, professor of learning support English; Margaret Smith, English professor, and Michael Stewart, assistant professor of sociology.