Mat-Su students win prizes in art contest

MAT-SU — Three local students won cash prizes in the Alaska Court System’s “Justice for All” art contest.

Selected from among more than 160 entries, Butte Elementary School fourth-grader Nikayla Chambers won second place and $300 in the kindergarten to eighth-grade division, American Charter Academy fifth-grader Hailee Godfrey won third place and $200, and Houston Middle School eighth-grader Kahlan Duffy received honorable mention recognition.

In the grades ninth to 12th division, Susitna Valley High School freshman Gitanjali Sterling won second place and $300.

The Justice for All contest asked students to submit two-dimensional artworks on the theme “Fairness, Diversity, Equality: Our Justice System Depends on Them. What Do They Mean to You?”

Contest winners will be honored May 2 at the annual Law Day Luncheon at the Dena’ina Convention Center in Anchorage. The luncheon is part of the annual Alaska Bar Convention and Judicial Conference.

Alaska’s Chief Justice Walter L. Carpeneti is the keynote speaker.

The Alaska Court System invites Alaska’s young people to learn about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship through a new online program at icivics.org.

iCivics is a new web-based education project founded by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (retired) to teach students civics and inspire them to be active participants in democracy.

If you would like to have a judge or attorney visit your classrooms to present an iCivics activity, contact the clerk of court at the courthouse nearest you or the statewide Judicial Outreach Coordinator Barbara Hood at (907) 264-0879 or bhood@appellate.courts.state.ak.us.