Three Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) students have won college scholarships from Junior Achievement of the National Capital Area, Inc., for essays they wrote about what the Washington area’s business community can learn from high school students.

   Jacob S. Rasch, a junior at Walt Whitman High School, is the 2010 grand prize winner for the Washington, D.C. region, and will receive a $20,000 scholarship. Jacob also finished as the first place winner for Maryland. Jacob’s prize-winning essay, “All I Really Needed to Know about Business, I Learned in High School,” argues that teenagers can impart valuable knowledge about technology and the “web-centric, data-centric, and media-centric demands of 21st century marketing.”

   Nina J. Lu, a junior at Montgomery Blair High School, was chosen as the second place winner for Maryland, while Jingran Wang, a senior at Richard Montgomery High School, won third place. Both students will receive $10,000 scholarships for their submissions in the 2010 Junior Achievement Essay Competition.

   Richard Montgomery High School also was selected by Junior Achievement to receive a $6,000 grant because students from the school submitted the most eligible applications for the essay competition of any high school in the region.

   All three students were honored in a Nov. 30 ceremony at the Marriott Wardman Park hotel in Washington, D.C.  The essay competition was sponsored this year by David M. Rubenstein, a co-founder and managing director of The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest private equity firms.

   The essay competition was open to any student in grades nine through 12  in the Washington, D.C. region. Students submitted 1,000-1,500 word essays on the topic: “What can the Greater Washington business community learn from today’s high school students?”

  Judges selected three winners from each of the three jurisdictions that Junior Achievement of the National Capital Area serves: the District of Columbia, northern Virginia counties, and southern Maryland counties.

   Junior Achievement of the National Capital Area offers programs to schools and students that provide entrepreneurial and financial literacy education experiences. The lessons are taught by local businesspeople, parents and university students who volunteer their time. All Junior Achievement programs focus on three key areas: entrepreneurship, work readiness, and financial literacy.

   Junior Achievement currently offers programs in grades 3, 7, and select high school classrooms throughout MCPS.

Junior Achievement of the National Capital Area