Harwood 8th grader wins Hildene essay prize
July 8, 2025 | By Lisa Scagliotti A Harwood Middle School student was honored this spring with a top prize in the annual 8th Grade Hildene Lincoln Essay Competition.
Zoya Bianchi’s essay titled “Bridging Our Two Worlds” won first place for the contest’s region that covers entries from students in Grand Isle, Franklin, Orleans, Essex, Lamoille, Caledonia, and Washington Counties. The award also includes $500.
Rising 9th grader Zoya Bianchi of Moretown
The annual essay contest has been run for 18 years by Hildene, the Manchester home of Robert Todd Lincoln, the only child of President Abraham Lincoln and First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln who lived to adulthood. The estate today is a museum and working farm with a civics foundation dedicated to education and the Lincoln legacy. The essay competition is meant to engage and inspire youth to consider and engage on important issues. It’s open to all eighth-graders in Vermont.
“Hildene seeks to inspire young people to engage in important issues—mindful of the responsibility each of us has to help make our world a better place,” the contest description explains.
According to its website, Hildene received 158 submissions from around the state this year. Entries are divided into four regions with awards made for first through third place in each; two honorable mentions were also selected from the finalist pool. Students both enrolled in public and private schools and those home-schooled may enter. Zoya listed her social studies teacher at Harwood, Nick Gordon, on her entry.
The contest prompt each year frames a significant historical aspect of President Lincoln’s legacy with a goal of encouraging civil civic discourse, especially around difficult subjects. This year, the organizers chose the topic of political and social polarization, which dominated the culture of Lincoln’s time not unlike today.
“When he delivered his first inaugural address in March of 1861, six states had already seceded from the Union and four more would soon follow suit. Despite his call for unity, the Civil War broke out just one month later and four years of devastating conflict ensued,” the essay introduction sets out.
It points out how, when Lincoln was reelected in 1864, his inaugural address focused not on his own victory but on the monumental task ahead to unite the fractured nation. It quotes Lincoln from that speech: “Urging all Americans to move forward with humility and in a spirit of reconciliation, he counseled, ‘with malice toward none; with charity for all... let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds.’”
Along with Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, his second inaugural is inscribed inside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Image courtesy of Hildene Lincoln Essay Competition
Students then were asked to write a piece of up to 500 words, reflecting on political and other divisions in the U.S. today to “describe how this polarization has impacted you, your community, family, and/or school. They also had to discuss one action that they, their community or family could take to promote reconciliation such as what Lincoln spoke of. “Explore both the possible challenges and potential positive impacts of this action in justifying why it would be worthwhile,” the prompt challenged.
Zoya’s first-person essay shared her experience with confronting polarization and division within her own family. She writes about the challenge of simply having a conversation with a loved one who has views opposite her own. Ultimately, her discussion focuses on empathy and “listening to the other person and trying to understand where they are coming from so that each party can get their point across to the other without resorting to insults…to make this world a little kinder and a little more connected.”
Read Zoya’s essay and the other top prize-winning entries from the contest on the Hildene website here.