What does America mean to you? This Kansas student’s answer might surprise you

During last year’s winter break from school, Olivia Sinness decided to take on an extra writing assignment.

She entered a national student essay competition that is part of America250 called “America’s Field Trip.”

Students from across the country answered the question “What Does America Mean to You?” and 125 students — including two from Kansas — were named field-trip winners out of more than 10,000 entries nationwide.

The fourth-grader at Clark Davidson Elementary School in Goddard didn’t write about freedom, the chance to be whatever you want to be, or even all the great things there are to see and do.

No, she wrote from her experiences. She wrote about America being a place where every student deserves an equal chance to learn.

Settling on an answer to the essay question

To understand how she got there – and won a three-day, two-night trip to Charleston, S.C. with her mom, Kayla Sinness – you have to know a little more about Olivia.

Her mom found out about the “America’s Field Trip” essay competition on Facebook. And that’s all Olivia needed to know.

“I’m competitive, and I wanted to try and get first,” Olivia said. “And then it was because I wanted to spread the word of people helping others.”

There was never an action plan for writing the essay or even deciding on her answer to the question, she told The Eagle while sitting in the library at her school with her mom and Dane Baxa, the Goddard Unified School District 265 director of community relations.

It was more like good teaching combined with a bit of fortuitous scheduling and her competitive nature.

Olivia’s mom, Kayla, sits on a special education parent panel and more than once last fall she needed Olivia to sit through the meetings because she didn’t have time to drop off Olivia at home and still get to the meetings on time.

Whether Olivia was simply a captive member of the audience or someone who was volun-told to sit there and be quiet, she absorbed a lot of the information, including one conversation in particular about possible state funding cuts for special education.

At about the same time, Olivia’s fourth-grade class had taken a field trip to Goddard’s pre-K program, and she learned how different people learned differently.

It was primarily through these experiences that Olivia picked a different kind of answer to the question: “What Does America Mean to You?”

Olivia worked on the essay project from late December until sometime in February. She spent time refining her idea, doing research, writing and re-writing. She said her final idea was at least her second or third revision of the idea she wanted to pursue.

Her essay came in at 94 words – just under the maximum 100 words allowed for students in grades third through fifth.

Olivia credits her fourth-grade co-teachers, Shanae Riggs and Rachel Dodge, for helping her become a better writer.

“They led me with my writing journey by helping me be able to write better and better throughout the year,” Olivia said. “And they also taught me to use the thesaurus so that then I wouldn’t just be stuck on stuff.”

Here is what she wrote:

Olivia Sinness’ winning essay

What America means to me is having a fair chance to learn and using my voice to help others. It’s making school equitable for someone who learns differently, like someone with an IEP. This is all because of the Civil Rights Act, which means no one is left out, and all kids get what they need to learn. It’s good to remember that even though America is turning 250 years old it is still learning just like students. Together, we can use our voices to make schools and our country even better for everyone.

Waiting to find out, then a field trip coming up

After turning her essay in, Olivia, like all the other essay contestants, had to wait while the winners were selected by America250, a national nonpartisan organization charged by Congress to engage Americans in celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary this Fourth of July.

She didn’t find out that she had won until May. Winners then ranked the list of possible field trips on the America’s Field Trip list and waited to find out where they were going. She and her mom will go to Charleston. They and other winners who selected that trip will take guided private tours of Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum, the International African-American Museum, and the South Carolina Aquarium, according to information on america250.org.