{"id":395251,"date":"2023-07-04T06:03:30","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T20:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=395251"},"modified":"2023-07-04T06:03:30","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T20:03:30","slug":"mallari-tops-my-marianas-writing-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mallari-tops-my-marianas-writing-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Mallari tops My Marianas writing contest"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Winners of the 2023 My Marianas Contest pose with the Northern Marianas Humanities Council staff at the Springs Plaza in Gualo Rai. (CHRYSTAL MARINO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After sifting through 57 entries, the Northern Marianas Humanities Council has named Mount Carmel School\u2019s Jill Anne Mallari as the top winner of this year\u2019s My Marianas Writing Contest, earning her $500.<\/p>\n

NMHC announced the winners of this year\u2019s My Marianas Writing Contest and presented them with their cash awards during a short presentation ceremony at the NMHC\u2019s headquarters in the Springs Plaza in Gualo Rai.<\/p>\n

Mallari, who is a Class of 2023 MCS graduate, won first place for her essay, One Ocean, One Home. In second place, winning $400, was Dryllynne Joseph, an incoming junior at Kagman High School, for her piece called The Scarred Knees. In third place, also a Class of 2023 MCS graduate, was Brissa Hunter, with her Our Beaches Become Our Memories winning $300.<\/p>\n

Runner up pieces were Cheyanne Koloni Sablan\u2019s Traditional Gender Roles, Ashley Muleta\u2019s Cure for Itchiness, Donovan Cabrera\u2019s My Home Away from Home, Luke John Agulto Lizamas A Son of the Marianas, and Ravin Sablan\u2019s Barbecue is Life.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s contest focused on the theme of \u201cSenses of Home.\u201d Participants were challenged to write a three- to five-page personal narrative essay using their five senses to share their reflections of their home.<\/p>\n

In a later interview with Mallari, she said she first had to struggle to think of a topic \u201cbecause there are so many things to write about our islands\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

As her topic has been about the ocean, she mentally pictured and focused on Banzai Cliff, since that was one of her go-to spots. In her essay she even shared about her fear of drowning, and how she had moved past that now.<\/p>\n

Mallari says the writing experience was bittersweet, since she will be moving off island to pursue her education. She is hoping to pursue law and will be taking a political science and business degree in the University of San Diego. Her award money, and the many other award incentives she had received for various local competitions, would be going toward her college education.<\/p>\n

Joseph credited her KHS teacher, Mr. Pangelinan, for encouraging and getting her to join the contest. She said he had made it a part of her grade, so it was mandatory. Now she is happy she did participate. \u201cI was shocked [to learn that she won] because I didn\u2019t expect this.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Joseph, her writing process was an emotional journey, just going back to her past and reliving some painful memories, but ones that would help her to always remember her home. Since she will carry her scars wherever she goes, she says she has a bit of Saipan and a flood of memories with her too.<\/p>\n

For Hunter, whose topic was also the ocean, the ocean had been a part of her and her family\u2019s memories over the years, with many of their home stories featuring Saipan\u2019s beaches. She described going through the writing process as a heartwarming experience. Hunter also feels personally disturbed when she witnesses trash on the beaches, so she had to add a portion of that experience in her essay. \u201cIt also has an effect on our younger generation, and it will affect our island and our community as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunter will also be moving overseas to pursue her education at Simons University in Boston, so this writing experience has also helped remind her to take a break from work, spend time with family, and make more memories.<\/p>\n

Mallari added, \u201cIt\u2019s also\u2026 sharing our stories and knowing people are going to read this and despite all the criticism we might get cause we\u2019re just students, it\u2019s a fun journey to just reflect on ourselves and our home, and the place we\u2019re going to leave soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

NMHC executive director Leo Pangelinan congratulated the winners and said that NMHC is seeking to publish and distribute these student\u2019s essays, endeavoring to spread yearly the print books of these winning essays to all high schools in the CNMI.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re thinking about possibly moving this contest to the beginning of the school year. We\u2019re thinking about hosting it in Humanities Month, which is in October,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The My Marianas Writing Contest is an NMHC project meant to promote literacy and the diverse backgrounds and experiences of high school students in the CNMI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After sifting through 57 entries, the Northern Marianas Humanities Council has named Mount Carmel School\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":395252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-395251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}