TEMPLETON — Templeton High School Senior Brooksley Pruitt received the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Good Citizen Award.
The Good Citizen award is open to all accredited North County High School students. Schools are asked to nominate one student who exemplifies a Good Citizen’s qualities.
This year, the El Paso de Robles NSDAR Chapter received entries from the following students:
Brooksley Pruitt – Templeton High School
Katelyn Hurl – Shandon High School
Katherine Reid – Paso Robles High School
Pruitt was awarded $500 from the El Paso de Robles NSDAR Chapter. Hurl and Reid was awarded $150 each.
Each entry must submit their high school activities, including how they serve the community, their future plans, extracurricular activities, and how they have exhibited the Good Citizen qualities of dependability, service, leadership, and patriotism. They must also submit their grade transcripts and two letters of recommendation.
Katherine Reid, student of Paso Robles High 
Katelyn Hurl, student of Shandon High
Once a student is chosen, they are asked to write a timed and proctored essay. This year’s essay topic was “Our American Heritage and Our Responsibility to Protect It.”
A panel of three community members who do not belong to NSDAR review all entries and select a winner. All panel members have backgrounds as teachers, newspaper writers, and public service.
After Pruitt was chosen as the El Paso de Robles chapter Good Citizen, her entry was forwarded to the district level. Although Pruitt was close, she did not make it past the district level.
El Paso de Robles NSDAR regent, Lisa Wood said, “All our Good Citizen entries were outstanding, and the judges said they were all very close. I am proud of all our students. I also commend the schools who took the time to choose the Good Citizen representatives from their schools. It is not an easy task at the best of times, and I’m sure that it was made more difficult by the pandemic.”
North County students in grade levels, fifth through eighth grade, were invited to participate in the American History Contest!
This year’s essay topic was “The Boston Massacre.” The students were asked to write an essay imagining they were living in Boston at the time and were to describe their family’s discussion about the Boston Massacre and what role it played in organizing the colonists against the British King and Parliament.
This year’s winners were:
5th Grade: Oliver Pierce of San Gabriel Elementary School
6th Grade: Pearl Ojeda of Templeton Hills Adventist School
7th Grade: Katherine Nicholson of Templeton Middle School
8th Grade: Kylie Lefler of Cappy Culver Middle School
Both Nicholson and Lefler won first place in the District competition, which includes the area from Northern Ventura County and Monterey County. Their entries have been forward to the State level.
