Eagleton Students Cash In on Winning Essays

Posted On: June 5, 2009

Learning how to Be BrainWise with Money has paid off, literally, for five Eagleton students who submitted winning entries to an essay contest in which they applied the 10 Wise Ways to managing money.

BrainWise and the Rotary Club of Denver Mile High Chapter, with help from a Daniels Fund grant, held the competition in May for 50 Eagleton fifth graders. Students were asked to write a one-page essay on the topic, “You have won $100. Tell a story about how you would manage this prize by being BrainWise and using the 10 Wise Ways.” A team of Rotarians reviewed the essays and submitted the top twenty entries to Colorado Speaker of the House, Terrance Carroll, who volunteered to be this year’s celebrity judge.

The first prize for the competition was a check for $100.  As part of the first prize, the classroom teacher also received $100 for her classroom. Two students received second place prizes of $50, and two other students received third place awards of $25.

The awards were presented by Dell Brooks, a master BrainWise instructor at Colorado High School Charter (CHSC), who commended each of the winners for their knowledge and application of BrainWise skills. Brooks encouraged the students to continue using BrainWise in Middle School and throughout their lives. Next year, Brooks plans to hold a similar competition for his students at CHSC.

Please follow and like us:

BrainWise Problem Solving Worksheet Helps Students Practice Executive Functions

Difficult school experiences can quickly erode students’ curiosity and interest in learning. When they fear failure, their Lizard Brain takes over—triggering anxiety, confusion, shame, and discouragement. Students rarely say, “I’m afraid I’ll fail.” Instead, they send red flags: avoiding contact, acting out, skipping classes, or eventually dropping out. Across decades of research addressing this problem, […]

Read More »

Navajo Youth Project: Teaching BrainWise and Technology at Window Rock High

Technology leaders and software engineers identify communication as the strongest predictor of software project success.  Studies show that communication breakdowns—not coding errors—cause most IT project failures, reworked cycles, and misaligned expectations. Senior engineers agree communication is the most important survival skill in tech because it requires using multiple cognitive processes at once: clarifying goals, analyzing tradeoffs, […]

Read More »

BrainWise + Community Service: A Double Dose of Doing Good

What happens when a simple idea —“teach thinking by doing”—is put into practice for 20 straight years? BrainWise has long championed community service as a powerful way to reinforce the 10 Wise Ways, giving youth a “double dose” of critical‑thinking practice that strengthens their skills while benefiting the people they serve. Past newsletters have highlighted […]

Read More »