LCA student takes home top prize in N. Ga. group's essay contest

The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District (the District) held a ceremony at the Georgia State Capitol on Tuesday to celebrate the winners of its 23^rd annual middle school essay contest and Hall County’s Julianne Roberts captured the top prize.

Roberts, a student at Lanier Christian Academy, was recognized as the district-wide winner, along with winners from 14 other counties and Atlanta, including Sonakshi Prusti , a student at Forsyth County’s Piney Grove Middle School.

More than 800 students from across a 15-county region in and around Atlanta participated in this year’s contest. Students were challenged to write a 300–500-word essay about local river basins throughout the District.

Roberts received a $500 prize for her winning essay comparing and contrasting the careers of a water process engineer and water quality superintendent. “Have you ever wondered how you manage to have [water] so conveniently when others have to walk miles? Well, there are people working daily to make sure you can fulfill your basic needs requiring water,” Roberts wrote in her essay.

2024 Essay Contest Winners

District-wide winner: Julianne Roberts of Lanier Christian Academy, Hall County
District Runner-up: Reid Bond, Durham Middle School, Cobb County
Elliot Tran – Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School, City of Atlanta
Oliver Kuykendall – Woodland Middle School, Bartow County
Arcadian Freund – E.T. Booth Middle School, Cherokee County
Alexis Moore – Mundy’s Mill Middle School, Clayton County
Aasiya Momin – The Carolyn Barron Montessori School, Coweta County
Vikrant Ravi – Chamblee Middle School, DeKalb County
Myles Martin – Harvester Christian Academy, Douglas County
Callie You – J.C. Booth Middle School, Fayette County
Sonakshi Prusti – Piney Grove Middle School, Forsyth County
Kyla Onwumbiko – Sandtown Middle School, Fulton County
Elliam Rodriguez – Berkmar Middle School, Gwinnett County
Rennajah Leverette – Impact Academy, Henry County
Rylen Weeks – Austin Middle School, Paulding County
Ava Smith – Memorial Middle School, Rockdale County

About the Author

Ken Stanford is Online News Editor for GLORY 97.5, a position he has held since August 2022.

Ken was born in Moultrie, Georgia, and says he knew from the time he was 5 or 6 he wanted to be a “radio announcer.” That dream was realized when he was hired by Moultrie radio station WMTM in 1960 at the age of 15 as a weekend disc jockey. A 1963 graduate of Moultrie (now Colquitt County) High School, he has spent his whole career in Georgia working for stations in Atlanta, Marietta, and Gainesville – most recently as News Director for 40 years at WDUN in Gainesville. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

Ken retired in 2011 but came out of retirement last year to help GLORY, on a part-time basis, beef-up its online news presence.

He is the recipient of many Associated Press awards and is a former judge of state and national Associated Press broadcast news contests. In 2005, he was presented with the Georgia Associated Press Broadcasters Association’s President’s Award for Excellence in Journalism and in 2019 was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame.

He lives in Gainesville with his wife of 52 years, the former Sandra McKnight of Clio, Alabama, and they have one child, a daughter, Lisa, who lives in Cumming with her family.