When junior Joseph Chan heard about the Piedmont Language School Essay Contest, he did not foresee writing a winning essay, much less one that would net him a scholarship for the Piedmont Community Church Mexico Mission Trip that takes place every spring break. But Chan wrote from his heart, and everything that he hoped would happen, did.

“It’s awesome,” Chan said, “I was studying for a test, and got an email, and I was flipping out, and was super stoked.”

In November of last year, the Piedmont Language School announced an essay contest for high school students. The student who wrote the best essay according to a group of judges would win a scholarship for the Mexico Trip.

Piedmont Language School board member Amy Weaver said that it was inspiring to hear from thoughtful and well-written essays that displayed various opinions, ideas, and narratives from students.

According to the Piedmont Language School’s website submitted essays, which were judged on originality, effectiveness, style, and grammar, had to answer the required question: “In our increasingly global society, students should be able to speak a foreign language before graduating from high school. Do you agree or disagree?”

After nearly two months of discussion, judges declared that Chan’s essay answered this question the best.

“Mrs. Leskowski brought it up, and I thought I’ll consider it, and it sort of stayed in the back of my head,” Chan said. “I didn’t have much work this one week, and I just said, why not?”

What started as a whim soon became a passionate piece of writing though, as Chan said he focused on the central idea of how Mandarin, Tagalog, and Spanish, have affected his life and his aspirations of learning languages.

“I also wanted to reflect well on what the language department here has done for me, and how it’s increased my love for language,” Chan said.

Spanish teacher Virginia Leskowski said that Chan is a great person to show as a model for the department.

“Him winning makes a lot of sense. He’s the kind of person that teachers are very proud of,” Leskowski said. “Every day he give 100%.”

Leskowski also said that it is a great thing there is an increasing amount of students who are taking more than one language in school.

Chan said that this passion for carrying languages outside of high school was the main reason for his entry, not the Mexico Trip scholarship.

“I’m pretty set on not going to Mexico actually, the schedule doesn’t work out for me,” Chan said. “I even thought about donating the money if I can, or just giving it back to the church.”

Whether he goes on the trip or not, Chan said that in the end, he was very proud that he could show what he has accomplished and demonstrate his skills in writing.