CHARLESTON W.Va. The 2023-2024 fifteen regional “When I Grow Up” essay contest winners were honored today at the Cultural Center in Charleston W.Va.
The contest and ceremony were held by the State Treasurer Riley Moore and was hosted by Deputy Chief of Staff Gina Joynes.
Photo: Metronews/Morgan Pemberton
The winners were given the opportunity to get up and read their essays in front the other winners and their families, where the jobs ranged from teacher, to wolf biologist, to astrophysicist.
The $500 dollar prize they were awarded was for them to start their SMART529 savings account for college or any higher education program of their choosing.
This contest has become big throughout West Virginia and people in the Office of the State Treasurer look forward to it every year.
“This is such a great event, that our office looks forward to it every year because we have this contest, it’s in its seventeenth year, and judges have selected fifteen reginal winners from around the state, and these students are in Kindergarten through fifth grade and they’ve all wrote about what they want to be when the grow up,” Joynes said.
When it came to kids writing these essays, Joynes says the possibilities of what these kids wrote about were endless, because they dreamed big.
“The possibilities are endless and these students they dream so big and they have such great ideas about what they want to be when they grow up,” Joynes said.
The contest was created with the students in mind, because it allows them to think about what is beyond secondary education.
“The real reason we do this is to encourage them to think big and look beyond high school, look beyond grade school,” Joynes said. “We want them to know that college, or some type of higher education, it doesn’t have to be a traditional four-year college, some type of higher education is within their reach and SMART529 college savings really promotes that.”
Joynes encouraged parents to look into the SMART529 college savings plan and familiarize themselves with what it is so they can start a college fund for their children while they are young.
Charlie Davis, a fifth grader at the time at Holz Elementary School in Kanawha County, was sitting in his library class, when he wrote about wanting to become a computer programmer and why.
“I just wrote that I wanted to be a computer programmer, because I love coding on Scratch, which is a little website where you can code games and other things,” Davis said.
And with his essay he was able to win his school, $500 along with his money that will begin his college savings account.
“I entered the essay in the SMART529 contest, and I won $500 for my school and $500 for my college account,” Davis said.
At the conclusion of the readings, the grand prize winner of an extra $4,500 was selected at random. The winner of the grand prize money was Emma Stover, who at the time was a Kindergarten student at New River Primary school in Fayette County. Emma wants to be a teacher because she wants to be nice to other kids and to help them learn.
Photo Carrie Hodousek
The 2024-2025 contest will begin in January 2025, and they will pick the winners at the end of the school year.