The Knights of Columbus Bishop Stanley J. Ott Assembly 2441 at St. Joseph Cathedral recently announced the winners of the 2025 Patriotic Essay Contest. This is an annual Knights of Columbus city wide essay contest for 8th grade students in Baton Rouge Catholic Schools. The goal of this yearly program is to promote and strengthen the patriotic spirit in our youth. The competition provides students with an opportunity to think and learn about our country’s rich heritage.

This year’s theme was:

How did Judeo-Christian beliefs, and the Ten Commandments, affect our nation’s founding documents? Do you feel displaying the Ten Commandments in school classrooms would influence behavior?

Students were invited to write a 500–750 word essay on the theme and upload their PDF to a secure website for grading. Student’s names and schools were kept confidential.

85 students from St. Jude the Apostle, St. George, St. Jean Vianney, and St. Aloysius Catholic Schools submitted essays in February. Three rounds of rigorous grading took place in March, conducted by 20 judges from around the city. Essays were judged on grammar, style, and how clearly, they presented the theme in a way that shows creativity, imagination, and overall development of the topic.

It was very unusual this year that all three winners were from St. Aloysius Catholic School and were students in Ms. Mongrue’s 8th grade Social Studies class. This year’s First Place essay was written by Thomas Lowe who received a $300 cash award and an engraved plaque. Second Place went to Emmie Spielman who received a $200 cash award and engraved plaque. Third Place went to Alyssa
Litchfield, who received a $100 cash award and engraved plaque. The awards were presented by Jon Reise of the Knights of Columbus at the St. Aloysius all-school assembly on April 2nd.