ThreeSixty -

By Twin Cities youth

More than 120 students around the Twin Cities submitted essays on what they would tell the presidential candidates about how they can help American youth.

The responses were incredibly diverse and ranged from calls to end the war in Iraq, a solution to teen homelessness, and a request for an iPhone.

It made deciding who to select as this month’s winners extremely difficult. And we made another difficult decision: We will not be awarding the $100 prize this month.

The essays submitted in September were all very strong, but to win the $100 prize, the entries must get deeper and more personal.

Here are examples of past winners, and they all share one thing in common: the writers are speaking from the heart.

June 2008: This year, prom was for my sister by Nakami Tongrit-Green

April 2008: Lonely at lunch by Dan Becker

February 2008: Life is too hard by Ahmednur Abdi Hudle and Not just a blind kid by Kris Mitchell

But there were a lot of good essays. We did award five $25 prizes of a gift card to Target — those essays are below — and we put together a package of the most interesting quotes from the many essays we received, read them here

Here are the winning essays:

Global Warming
By Rachel Mosca, 15, of Humboldt Senior High School

If I had fifteen minutes with Barack Obama, I would tell him that the biggest issue on my mind is global warming. I’m scared that our environment won’t be able to protect us for much longer. With the amount of trash and other unidentifiable junk that ends up on the side of the road, on playgrounds, or even in people’s backyards, it’s just a matter of time until the ozone layer starts to look like a doily. I don’t want to have to worry about my children or grandchildren being burned to a crisp without wearing SPF 5,000 sun block.

It’s a harsh reality and something needs to be done before it’s too late. There’s still hope, I mean, that’s what you’re always saying. “An Inconvenient Truth” gave us a lot of information on global warming, but what’s being done about it? I do all I can to conserve energy, pick up trash and anything else to keep our planet safe and clean.

But I’m just one person.

We need a movement, a law, that will ensure the safety of this planet. Plus a way to repair the damage that has already been done.

The average global air temperature near the earth’s surface has increased about 1.3 degrees over that past 100 years and the climate model projections from the IPCC have indicated that the temperature will most likely rise another 2.0 to 11.0 degrees over the twenty-first century. Something needs to be done about this, before it’s too late.

Dear Mr. President
By Claire Mahoney, 14, of Southwest High School

Dear Mr. President,

My generation needs your help. I am 14 years old, live in a safe neighborhood, and have a future with endless possibilities. However, many other kids don’t feel this way about their future. Kids who live in tough neighborhoods, whose parents have little money and cannot send them to college. I think the most important thing you can do to help young americans is give these kids the hope at a future that includes going to college.

I think many kids think that because their parents cannot afford college that there is no point in getting good grades or trying hard in school. You could create more programs for kids to work on schoolwork or just to hang out. If they felt like they belonged to a group of some sort that might keep more kids off the streets and keep them from turning to gangs for protection.

In these programs, kids could get help from tutors. I think it would be great if there were people who could inform them on the consequences of gangs, and the advantages of staying clean and sober. Another way to help young Americans is to make college more affordable.

The average cost of college tuition is $23,712. If more people went to college our country would be a much better place.

Our generation could do so much for our country, or even the whole world. Although, with the growing college tuition price it seems that it might not happen. This is why it is so important for college prices to be lowered.

All we need is hope and possibilities. With this hope our generation exceed expectations and achieve greatness. We are the future of this country and it is so important for us to be educated in every way.

Mr. President, you can open the doors for our generation and give us hope for tomorrow.

Seniority means nothing
By Matteo Alampi, 15, of Southwest High School

Senator Obama, I have a problem with the teacher seniority system. Over the years I have noticed how unfair this system is. I have seen great teachers get kicked out of their job by “more experienced” teachers that clearly are worse at their job. I’ve seen boring, unintelligent, pushover teachers that would not budge from their position due to their seniority.

After teaching for a number of years, teachers in Minnesota gain seniority or a tenure. This gives old, boring, and possibly unqualified teachers the ability to take jobs from young, energetic, and very qualified teachers. This also prevents them from being pushed out of their current job. Not only does this stop kids from learning well, it also prevents new teachers from showing their skill and becoming experienced.

You need to eliminate the tenure system and give teachers a fair chance to get a job. A system could be set up where previous schools or teaching facilities can post information on the teacher and their style. This will allow schools to search for the exact teacher they need based on their performance and qualifications. This new system will ensure that schools hire the best available teachers.

The learning environment will improve and get kids more exited about learning. Kids will actually want to go to school because they will have so much fun.

I have experienced this first hand when I had a great teacher. I was always excited to go to school that year.

Hopes for the future
By Chris Ulrich, 14, of Southwest High School

There are three issues to improve the lives of young people that I believe deserve your full attention.

The current almost 10 trillion dollar national debt is an unfair burden for our generation to inherit. It will cripple our ability to improve our lives and prepare a better future for our children. The people in power now have not been willing to raise taxes and have made bad decisions regarding entering an unnecessary war in Iraq, not preparing for the inevitable energy crisis, and setting up a reckless financial system.

Global warming is the next issue; this problem threatens our very existence. We need to start supporting alternative energies such as solar, water, and wind. I believe solar is the most reliable. You need to fund a program to start making solar plantations to power cities and factories.

In addition, another program needs to start researching on how to store solar energy, so when the sun is not shining, we have back up energy. This will also provide high paying jobs for my generation.

Finally, the solution to these problems relies on educating my generation to meet these challenges. We need good training in engineering, science, and economics, but we also need to really know how our government works and think about how our actions affect our country. We will still have to work hard to clean up this mess but if you begin tackling it now, our job will be minimized.

Asking Barack Obama to lower gas prices
By Mai Der Yang, 14, of Harding High School

I want Barack Obama to lower gas prices for three reasons.

First, more people need gas for their cars but gas prices are going up too much. Not enough people have the money to use it on gas because they need to use it on something else, like food and clothes.

Second, I hear people complaining about gas prices and more people are starting to bike their way to work. Also more people are wanting to travel but they are worried about the gas prices.

Third, gas prices are rising and food are also rising along too. Now people are choosing to get gas or feed their family so they could survive. In conclusion, I want Barack Obama to lower gas prices.