South High School Senior Mark Pyzdrowski recently won first place in the “Denver Student Voices Website Essay Contest.”

Pyzdrowski’s essay, “Analysis of News Coverage on the WEB/ The Senate Race in Colorado,” was selected from over 200 entries. The contest was open to tenth- through twelfth-grade students.

The essay contest was organized by The National Civic League and sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School of Communication and the Pew Charitable Trust, said Megan Brunet, project manager for the National Civic League.

The purpose of the contest was “to allow students to explore our website and analyze whether our candidates are bringing us good information, what the news organizations are covering, and what the relevant issues are,” said Brunet. “We wanted to give students the opportunity to analyze the whole election process in preparation for the elections in November.”

Pyzdrowski originally wrote his essay as an assignment for South High School Teacher Michael Corey’s Advanced Placement government class before submitting it to the contest.

“A result of Mark’s success is a profound sense of pride,” said Corey. In addition, Pyzdrowski will receive $100 for his essay and Corey will receive $250 to spend on his Advanced Placement government class.

Aside from his classes, Pyzdrowski is enrolled in South High School’s Academy of Finance and plays for South’s Lacrosse Team. After graduating, he plans to attend Colorado State University and major in business.

Denver Student Voices is part of the National Student Voices Project, a program that encourages the civic engagement of young people by bringing the study of a local political campaign into the classroom, according to the National Student Voices Project. Student Voices works with school systems throughout the country to help high school students study the issues and candidates in their city’s mayoral campaign.

For more information on Denver Student Voices, contact The National Civic League at 1445 Market Street, Suite 300, phone 720-931-0833.

South High School is located at 1700 E. Louisiana Ave.; telephone 303-698-6100.