The annual Vocations Awareness Poster and Essay contest — sponsored by the Vocation Office and the St. Serra Club of Louisville — received a record 562 entries this year.
The contest received 346 poster entries from 15 schools and 216 essays from nine schools, said Benedictine Sister Sarah Yungwirth, who serves as associate director of the Vocation Office.
Sister Yungwirth said the hundreds of essays and posters are “evidence of the thoughtfulness that is going into vocation” in the Archdiocese of Louisville.
“The great thing is that this really shows that the culture of vocation in the archdiocese is growing, and it’s wonderful to have young people taking time to reflect on the possibility of what God calls people to,” she said. “Thinking of that possibility plants those seeds for the future.”
Essay writers were asked to respond to the question, “How does the Eucharist help someone grow closer to the person God is calling him or her to become?”
Annemarie Doane, an eighth grader at Holy Angels Academy, won first place in the essay contest. Second place went to Jackson Luttrell, a seventh grader at St. James School in Elizabethtown, Ky., and third place went to Alexandra Lyon, a seventh grader also from St. James.
This year’s winning essays can be found here.
Poster competitors were asked to create an entry that promotes vocations to the priesthood, consecrated religious life, permanent diaconate or the married and/or single life.
Madelynn Martin, a sixth grader at Immaculata Classical Academy, won first place. Mavyn Hasch, a fifth grader at St. Michael School in Jeffersontown, placed second. Third place went to Zaid Charasika, a sixth grader at St. Albert the Great School.
The first-place winners will be recognized at a Serra Club luncheon March 6 and all the winners will be recognized with a certificate presented to them at their school. First-place winners will receive a $250 cash prize. Second-place winners will receive a $150 cash prize and the third-place winners will receive $100.
