Writing Outside The Westport Bubble

Westport is often called a bubble.

Here’s a great way for teenagers to step outside that real — or perceived — self-enclosed world.

TEAM Westport — the town’s multicultural commitee — and the Westport Library are sponsoring an essay contest. Westporters in grades 9-12 are invited to write (in 1000 words or less) about the fact that 30 years from now, racial and ethnic groups currently in the US minority will collectively outnumber whites.

Specifically, students are invited to describe the benefits and challenges of this change for Westport, and for themselves personally.

First prize is $1,000. Second prize is $750; third prize is $500.

But the true reward comes from thinking, and writing about, a very real and important issue that sometimes seems — erroneously — to have nothing to do with Westport.

(Click here for an essay contest application. Deadline for submission is February 28.)

A stock photo — but it could be a scene from Westport today.