Some creative students were honored at a reception Wednesday for placing in this year’s Kern Community College District Literary Competition. The reception, held in the Executive Board Room at Bakersfield College, gave out awards for both achievement at the individual college level, as well as at the district level. Students receiving awards from the district were invited to read their work while coffee and cookies were offered.
Bakersfield College winners were: fiction: first place, “Fight of a Lifetime,” Nolan Portillo; second place, “Roots,” Fernando Jarra; and third place, “The Gauntlets,” Michael Molina; personal essay: first place, “Breath,” Jennifer Mills; second place, “Path Not Wanted,” Stephanie Gardner; and third place, “Tia Fefe,” Melody Rivera; poetry: first place, “Love,” Melissa La Fleur; second place, “Sultan and Braveheart,” Melody Rivera; and third place, “Pain,” Stephanie Gardner.
Kern Community College District winners were: fiction: first place, “My Stepmother’s Tatoo,” Kathleen Farell, Porterville College; second place, “Roots,” Fernando Jarra, Bakersfield College; and third place, “His Father’s Son,” Frances A. Cota, Cerro Coso College; personal essay: first place, “Emergence,” Julia Young, Porterville College; second place tie: “Breath,” Jennifer Mills, Bakersfield College and “Path Not Wanted,” Stephanie Gardner, Bakersfield College; poetry: first place, “Do You Need Eeny Peekers,” Shirley M. Davis, Cerro Coso College; second place, “Cocoons and Butterflies,” Frances A. Cota, Cerro Coso College; and third place, “Love,” Melissa La Fleur, Bakersfield College.
-Compiled by staff writer Daniella Williams