PRESS RELEASE

Knight Essay Contest Awardee

 Ms. Shannon Elliott captivated the audience who were in attendance at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC on July 4, 2019 with her essay about one of the forces/motivations behind the American Revolution; taxation without representation.  Entitled "Taxation without Representation: History Repeated", Ms. Elliott, standing alongside the grave of  Vice President Elbridge Gerry, the only signer of the Declaration of Independence buried in the Nation’s Capital, compared this wrongdoing to the current taxation without representation of District of Columbia residents.

The George S. & Stella M. Knight Essay Contest is open to any student in grades 9-12 in any public, parochial, private or home school within Washington DC. The student must write and submit an original researched and proven paper. The topic of the essay shall deal with an event, person, philosophy, or ideal associated with the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, or the framing of the United States Constitution. Ms. Elliott received a $1000 prize as the 2019 contest winner from DCSAR President Lane D. Brooks alongside her mother, Ms. Sheila McCree.

Shannon Elliott is a long-standing District of Columbia resident. She recently graduated from McKinley Technology High School on a NAF certified Informational Technology Computer Science track and will be attending North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in this fall majoring in civil engineering.  A growing number of top national and global companies have committed to NAFTrack Certified Hiring, a promise to give special consideration to college students and eventual job applicants who, as high school graduates, earned NAFTrack Certification.