An international essay contest has a winner from Mid-Prairie. A Mid-Prairie Middle School student received recognition after his essay was selected in the top 10 of the contest. Seventh-grader Colin Jennings was honored by teachers and administration Wednesday. His essay is one of the 10 winners in the Jackie Robinson Breaking Barriers Essay Contest.

Scholastic runs the contest each year to inspire students to break through barriers, just as Jackie Robinson did when he broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Last year, there were over 13,000 submissions from students in third through ninth grades from across the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

Language Arts teacher Beth Fiordelise says she was elated to receive the news, “I almost had gotten to the point where I felt like I was falsely advertising the students to do this contest, like telling them, ‘Sure you have a chance to win, let’s do this!’ And in the back of my mind thinking, ‘Oh, I hope I’m not getting their hopes up for something that isn’t going to happen.’ So for Colin to win this is huge. I mean one out of 13,000 people is a huge accomplishment for him. We’re really proud of him.”

Jennings was given a new laptop computer as a prize, and his classmates each received a free t-shirt and book written by Sharon Robinson, Jackie Robinson’s daughter.