Barnard President Judith Shapiro, right, with Natalie Buchinsky of the Bronx High School of Science, first-prize winner of this year's Barnard College/CBS Essay Contest for an essay about her grandmother who survived the Holocaust.

Twenty-four high school juniors who dug deep into their own lives and the lives of women they admired and found powerful ways to express their ideas were honored recently at the tenth anniversary ceremony of the Barnard/CBS Essay Contest in McIntosh Center.

"Every one of the winning essays speaks with a unique, memorable voice as it introduces the reader to a real-life heroine," said Barnard President Judith Shapiro. A record 624 high school junior girls in 74 New York City public high schools in all five boroughs submitted essays on the topic of "A Woman I Admire."

Natalie Buchinsky of the Bronx High School of Science took first prize with an essay about her grandmother, a Holocaust survivor who "survived the memories of a lost sister; a dead mother and brother, and of a dead child, whom she calls Beryl, who never had the chance to grow up."

Buchinsky linked her grandmother's cooking—"It is endless peeling on the holidays; a world of onions, gefilte fish and brown potato skins"—with the deprivations she suffered in Nazi labor camps and Displaced Person camps. Allajah Young of Fashion Industries High School won second prize for her essay on a neighbor, who by introducing her to painting unleashed the power of the imagination and "changed the world to color for me."

Landa Alhanshaly of Richmond Hill High School won third prize with her essay "Breaking Free of My Chains" on Harriet Tubman. In the essay, she gives an imaginative first-person account in which Tubman spoke of "my desire to breathe without fearing the merciless lash that drew blood."

Leah S. Alston-Phillips, a student at Offsite Educational Services/Taft Houses, won fourth prize with an essay on her social worker, Brenda Tully, who "helped me explore myself, something very important for a very confused teenage girl." Alston-Phillips said the relationship, and her life, began to turn around when Tully asked her a deceptively simple question: "What's your favorite color?"

Shonda Nereida Prince, a junior at Midwood High School who won the contest in 1991-92, said the award "really boosted my confidence in my writing skills." Prince later went on to complete a B.A. in journalism from SUNY New Paltz, edit a Harlem youth newspaper and work as an assistant editor/writer at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

Over the past decade, more than 70 percent of the essayists have focused on family, teachers and literary characters rather than celebrities. Barnard established the contest in 1991 as part of its commitment to New York City and its public schools. This year's jurors also judged the first contest: columnist Anna Quindlen, novelist Mary Gordon, New York Times columnist Joyce Purnick and Barnard English Professors Elizabeth Dalton and Quandra Prettyman. Quindlen, Gordon and Purnick are all Barnard graduates.

Next year, the contest will expand to include the Philadelphia public school system.