Four Peaks Chapter, NSDAR, has announced that Hanna M. Barsema, a Fountain Hills High School graduate, is the recipient of the DAR Good Citizen Award.

Additionally, she won the scholarship contest with a monetary award. Barsema is the daughter of Matt and Christina Barsema.

The Good Citizen Program is intended to encourage and reward the qualities of good citizenship. It is based on the qualities of dependability, service, leadership and patriotism.

Barsema’s application included a description of how she has tried to manifest the qualities of a good citizen, submitted along with her transcript and two letters of recommendation. She also sat for a monitored, timed essay about American heritage without assistance or references.

Barsema will attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She plans to study global security and intelligence studies.

The essay theme, “Our American Heritage and Our Responsibility for Preserving It,” had students answer the prompt: “You and your peers are our nation’s leaders of tomorrow. How would you energize America’s youth to fully engage as effective citizens? Why is this important?”

Barsema’s essay:

“We are the voices, the leaders, the inventors, the businessmen and women, the teachers, the builders, the creators, the presidents, the citizens of tomorrow. The American youth today lack the confidence to grow, to achieve their lifelong goals. They lack the motivation to engage as citizens in our country. Without the youth, there will be no tomorrow. There will be no job outlook, or outreach, or dreams. But why are we not engaging? Where is the disconnect?

“I believe the disconnect between the American youth and our effectiveness as citizens falls under of lack of civic engagement. Civic engagement is working to make a difference in one’s community through developing the knowledge and skills to then make that difference. It can mean promoting the quality of life in a community by voting or by planting a community garden or by picking up trash every Saturday for the neighbors in exchange for cookies. Ultimately, civic engagement addresses issue of public concern on the individual level. Though small, without it, we would have unconcerned citizens and a controlling, unstoppable government without a check. The individual has power; however, there is no real way to energize the youth to participate in civic engagement, other than to strongly urge participation in two categories: political and non-political.

“For those more politically included, they can engage in activities that allow them to become better informed about current events, like food crises or local elections. Or, they can register to vote, which takes about 15 minutes. The real problem is having informed voters. Informed voters are instrumental in America, but they need to be educated to be informed. The best way to get informed is to get active locally. See who is running for local office, what they stand for, what their policies are like. If the environment is a big part of your beliefs, see if their policies benefit or hinder environmental policy change. If aligned with a party, find a meeting around you for like-minded people – see what they think!

“Volunteering is the other way to become active in a community, not just to help people, but to grow aware of larger social and political problems. It connects students, if they volunteer in a large school group, closer to each other. They can support one another and may even gain friends along the way. Volunteering can connect you to your own town and community in ways that you can’t even comprehend. Being the president of the local Key Club chapter has put me in the spotlight a few times, but only because we do good work around town and people enjoy our help. Being a volunteer, giving your time, energies and skills to improve the way something works, looks or functions, is so rewarding and important to contribute to, because you’re able to help someone less fortunate than you who will appreciate what you did for years to come.

“It is important to engage American youth through civil engagement because we need informed and registered voters, support for volunteer groups, and we need to step up for ourselves somehow. Participating in community activities is an easy way to start, as well as a way for us to grow more active in our adult years. We are the citizens of tomorrow; we need to act like it.”