We first started going on mission trips because our family felt that Christmas should be more than getting presents. ... We had a local firefighter give a presentation at our class. ... It's about a football coach inviting and becoming a good friend with a mentally handicapped man from town and how this man can make a difference to everyone me meets. I learned that a person can easily be a friend to everyone just as easily as someone can be ousted by a whole town. ... Service project are all around us, we just need to look a little and volunteer our time. ...

• Word Count: 1258
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The town of Richmond takes great pride in their basketball team, and Coach's stance to keep the team from having access to the gym, causes outrage in the community. ... Even in the real town of Richmond half of the student athletes never graduated. ... His cousin is a very well known drug dealer around their town. ... He says that no man should use it because it is a demeaning word used to demoralize our ancestors. ...

• Word Count: 1751
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In our society today teachers don't get the credit they should or get paid like they should. ... Teachers in our society have to deal with kids being rude and sometimes out of control. ... Sometimes I would not even get home from out of town games until eleven or twelve o"clock at night and by that point I was way too tired to do any homework. ... Even though our society is far from perfect I like living in my world. Our society today is based largely on money and that is the reason that so many people break the law. ...

• Word Count: 1738
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

Everyday after school, I broke out my favorite box of crayons and went to town scribbling and practicing writing letters, words and simple sentences that I learned in class. ... My friends and I annoyingly referred to him as our favorite grandpa and he got a kick out of it. ... Caves loved to assign the longest, most boring reading assignments out of our Robert Frost poem books. ...

• Word Count: 1305
• Approx Pages: 5

Race or money could not help you play better and so they were nonexistent in our minds. ... They came from several different sides of town and there was a diverse mixture of people on the team. ... We simply all had the same goal of playing to the highest level of our potential. ... Knowing that our senior year was going to be our last; we all made the decision to be the best we possible could. ... Xavier, our starting safety, was nicknamed "X-man". ...

• Word Count: 1852
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

These pranks were actually inflicted on a dozen sophomore girls from Northern Highlands Regional High School, which serves home to such towns as Allendale and Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. ... From another student: "Our society has to relax a little. ... At school, some students now wear "Support Our Seniors- T-shirts. ... I have experienced hazing, and I feel that it made our team stronger. We learned to work together, but most importantly we learned how far our mind and body could actually be pushed. ...

• Word Count: 1709
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

It's scary to think that even in our schools today; parents, family members, society as a whole has to contemplate whether or not their child will be safe in a learning environment. ... Some locals aren't waiting: The 5,500-resident town of Jordan, Minnesota, has moved its entire eight-officer police force into schools.... However by placing more armed officers in our schools is nothing but disastrous for our youth. ... With that being said I'd say it's time for a real solution, it's time to put the cops back out on the streets and give more important roles to our teac...

• Word Count: 2045
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Growing up, I never really saw a problem with obesity in our country. ... Our parents grew up with notably different standards of living than we have today. ... After being born in Tennessee, I was raised in a small town in Mississippi. ... Our recess was 45 minutes long and consisted of tag, jump ropes, and jungle gyms. ... How is this affecting us and our diet? ...

• Word Count: 1987
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

If we needed to buy groceries we had to ride a bus or asked my grandfather to take my mother and me to buy food and buy our personal things. ... In this town everyone knows one another. ... Our biggest focus was school. ... We owe it not only to ourselves but also to our families, communities and our homelands to put our best foot forward and represent our cultures in a positive light. ...

• Word Count: 1963
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

Issues like inadequate teaching staff, lack of materials, limited education, and unequal education face our education system today. ... For example, a small town farm community with around 200 students in attendance may not have the materials (textbooks, learning tools, and computers), educational staff, and resources as a large private school. ...

• Word Count: 1529
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School