RRHS student wins honorable mention in Leopold Writing Contest

The Leopold Writing Program announced the winners of the 2023 Aldo Leopold Writing Contest this week. Of the nine students who were awarded, one was from Rio Rancho High School.

Madeline Hostetler, an 11th grader at RRHS, won an honorable mention award in the 10th-12th grade category.

More than 170 students from across New Mexico in grades 6-12 entered this year’s contest. Students were asked to submit original essays in response to the following question: “After reflecting on author Robin Wall Kimmerer’s and Aldo Leopold’s thoughts about our relationship to the land, what do you see as your role in returning the Earth’s gifts?”

This year’s writing contest was the 15th annual and was chaired by New Mexico environmental educator Elena Kayak, with a team including Sayre Gerhart, vice president of the Leopold Writing Program, and 16 volunteer judges.

“Each year, we create an essay topic to challenge students in their thinking of how the Earth may thrive, and then they gift us with lyrical expressions of their fresh ideas,” Kayak said. “Every judge can tell you how we are uplifted by their writings.”

The students will be honored at an awards ceremony on Earth Day — with cash prizes totaling almost $3,000 to the winning writers — on April 22 at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque. The ceremony will be followed by a lecture by Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass.