Congratulations to Northport High School junior Francesca DeRosa, whose essay won third place in the Huntington Youth Writes Contest this month. Her two page essay titled “PopPop” was dedicated to her grandfather who passed while she was in elementary school. 
The focus of the story was on combining the elements of his life she could remember, while expressing frustration for the parts she could not. Francesca shared that the essay was “to emphasize my desire to ease my frustration and guilt about not remembering much about a man who touched the lives of my mother and grandmother.”
Francesca worked with English teacher Allison Coulson as part of an independent study for the essay. She was honored during an award recognition ceremony on May 18.