NEWS RELEASE
SIMCOE COUNTY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
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Three high school students have won the Simcoe County Historical Association’s Andrew Hunter Award for excellence in essay writing on a topic in Canadian history.
Lavanya Chopra of Bradford District High School won first place for her essay on prejudice and discrimination in Canadian history.
Jordan Walker of Innisdale Secondary School won second place for an essay on colonialism.
Lisette Harrison, also of Innisdale Secondary School, won 3rd place for an essay on anti-Black racism.
Each winner will receive a cash prize as well as the gift of a history book that it is hoped will help them in their continued study of Canadian history.
The Andrew Hunter Award, named after an early historian of Simcoe County and co-founder of the historical association, was originally offered to post-secondary Canadian history students at Laurentian University’s Barrie campus.
When Laurentian phased out its history program in 2015 as part of its withdrawal from Barrie, the award went dormant until it was relaunched in 2020, this time focused on students of Canadian history at high schools across Simcoe County.
“We at the Simcoe County History Association (SCHA) believe that if you want people to preserve historical places, buildings, artifacts and archival material in the future, we must connect them to history as they develop and grow," says SCHA President Ted Duncan. "The Hunter Award program is one way to do that.”
“We must support educators who develop programs to involve their students in our past through research and storytelling,” Duncan says. “Andrew Hunter believed in that, and so do we.”
The SCHA will be accepting submissions for the next Andrew Hunter Award throughout the current academic year. Interested teachers can contact the SCHA for more information at [email protected].
Founded in 1891, the Simcoe County Historical Association is a voluntary non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion, preservation, and appreciation of the history and heritage of Simcoe County. For more information about the Simcoe County Historical Association, please visit our website at www.simcoecountyhistory.ca.
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