Local essayist wins D.C. trip

A Terrebonne High School sophomore read his school essay to 500 guests at an awards dinner in Washington D.C. after winning a national essay contest.

“I’m shocked,” said Cameron Clement. “I’ve always wanted to go to Washington, D.C. and I’m really excited about it.”

Clement, a member of the Terrebonne High School’s Jobs for America’s Graduates program, submitted his essay, “Agriculture: A Lasting Impact” in a national essay contest sponsored by one of JAG’s partners, AgCareers.com. Clement’s essay was one of nine submitted from Terrebonne High School and one of 65 in the contest.

“I never really thought about how much agriculture impacts our lives until my teacher asked us to write about it,” Clement said. “Bennett Joffrion, an Extension Agent from the Louisiana State University Agriculture Center, came to speak to our class before the contest, and he told us about the many uses of sugar cane.”

Students also learned about the local sugarcane research facility, one of only two in the country, and Clement used the resources Joffrion provide to write his essay.

“Most people don’t think about the way sugar cane farms impact the area, so I described the ways that it does,” Clement said. “Agriculture plays a big part in our lives. Taxes generated by sugar cane help our schools. Louisiana is also second in the country for sugar cane production.”

While Clement said it hasn’t quite sunk in yet that his speech had a far-reaching impact, he is sure what he hopes the crowd took from his essay.

“I want people to know just how important the state is to agriculture,” Clement said. “We are not appreciated.”

At the JAG National Student Leadership Conference, Clement was also able to take part in career building and life skills workshops, network with other students and tour the nation’s capital.

In addition to winning the national contest, Clement’s essay also scored a top mark on the local level.

“We work on essay writing skills and invite guest speakers into our classroom every couple weeks,” said Terrebonne High School JAG Specialist Lisa Evans Boudreaux. “We are an inner city school, so most of our students do not have first-hand knowledge of agriculture, but they are used to seeing it since the city is surrounded by sugarcane fields.”

According to Boudreaux, this is the first time in the four-year history of the essay contest that a student from Louisiana has won the event.

“This has put Louisiana, one of the top agriculture states, Houma and Terrebonne High School on the map,” Boudreaux said.

Clement’s essay was one of three semi-finalists in the contest.

“I whittle the essays down to the top three and then we had a teen mentor, a student ambassador and industry expert read the final three,” said Agcareers.com Education and Marketing Specialist Ashley Collins. “Cameron had an extremely creative introduction, and he showed his creative writing skills. He applied what the class’s guest speaker said, and that was great, too.”