Shady Side Academy junior Anker Zhao is a winner of the 2021 National Society of The Colonial Dames of America's (NSCDA) Congressional Essay Contest.

The essay topic for 2021 asked applicants to either support retaining the U.S. Electoral College or promote and support another system to operate in its place. Zhao's winning essay promoted the use of ranked-choice voting in presidential elections and the abandonment of the Electoral College.

Zhao and the other essay contest winners will receive scholarships to attend The Washington Workshops Congressional Seminar, a week of citizenship education about the national government in Washington D.C. The week is spent attending lectures by members of Congress and other high-ranking government officials, as well as touring sites in our nation's capital. Due to COVID-19, Zhao will attend the seminar in the summer of 2022.

Congratulations to Anker and his faculty mentor, Senior School history teacher Dan Coyne!