Among the winners of a recent Santa Barbara City College essay contest, “Plato’s ‘Crito’ and the Honorable Life,” were three students from Santa Barbara High School.

The event was sponsored by the Great Books Curriculum through a grant from the Apgar Foundation.

The essayists’ challenge was to compare a text of their choice to Socrates’ lesson in how to live the righteous life. Essay judges were impressed by the great diversity in readings that these young scholars chose, among them: Beowulf, The Great Gatsby, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, To Kill a Mockingbird and Don Quixote.

Congratulations go out to the following Santa Barbara High School students:

» Grand Prize — Tanya Crispin

» Honorable Mention — Preston Schlagel

» Honorable Mention — Sam Wing

These students, along with Alta Vista Middle School’s winners will be honored at a luncheon at Santa Barbara City College in February, receive honoraria for their essays and have those essays published in booklet form by SBCC.

The Santa Barbara High School teachers who worked on this project were Patricia Ruth, Kristen Salontay and Joseph Velasco.

— Barbara Keyani is the administrative services and communications coordinator for the Santa Barbara Unified School District.