Essays win 2 students trips to All-Star Game & World Series

Major League Baseball and Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company, have selected Selihom Kidane from Charlotte, N.C. (Grade 5) and Jesse Quist from Cheyenne, Wyo. (Grade 9) as Grand Prize winners of the 2018 Breaking Barriers: In Sports, In Life essay contest. The essay contest is the culminating component of the Breaking Barriers educational program, led by Major League Baseball, Scholastic, and Sharon Robinson -- daughter of Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, MLB Educational Programming Consultant, author, and founder of the Breaking Barriers program. Breaking Barriers is designed to educate students in grades four through nine about the values demonstrated by Jackie Robinson as he broke Baseball's color barrier in 1947, and how to apply them to their own lives. 
The Breaking Barriers essay contest encourages students from across the country to write about overcoming personal obstacles or barriers through the example set forth by Jackie Robinson. The program focuses on nine values: Courage, Teamwork, Determination, Persistence, Integrity, Citizenship, Justice, Commitment and Excellence. Selihom, 11, wrote about her and her brother's courageous 11-month journey to escape war-torn Eritrea, Africa, and reunite with their mother in the United States, when they were five and 11 years old, respectively. Ninth grader Jesse, 15, described the amount of determination and persistence he has had to exhibit after being born without fully functioning hands or arms. Sharon Robinson will join Selihom and Jesse when they are recognized at the 89th MLB All-Star Game presented by Mastercard at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. and the 2018 World Series, respectively.   
The 2018 Breaking Barriers essay contest is also recognizing 10 national winners, including Selihom and Jesse. The full list of winners is below:
Grand Prize Winners
Selihom Kidane, Grade 5, Charlotte, N.C.
Jesse Quist, Grade 9, Cheyenne, Wyo.
MVP Prize Winners
Esme Curran, Grade 4, Oro Valley, Ariz.
Benjamin Koch, Grade 9, Scarsdale, N.Y.
All-Star Prize Winners
Zachary Berzanske, Grade 6, Marietta, Ga.
Nina Gonzalez, Grade 6, Chicago, Ill.
Nathaniel Heck, Grade 6, Cold Spring, Ky.
Kera Mingus, Grade 9, Forsyth, Mo.
Alissa Warren, Grade 7, Alamo, Tenn.
Rose West, Grade 8, King of Prussia, Pa.
 
Each of the ten prize winners will receive a new laptop computer, courtesy of Microsoft, and additional prizes for their classes, including Breaking Barriers t-shirts and books written by Sharon Robinson. Each of the Grand Prize and MVP Prize winners also will receive a personal visit from Robinson, and their teachers will receive a new laptop from Microsoft as well. 
"We are incredibly proud to announce this courageous group of young writers as winners of the 2018 Breaking Barriers essay contest," said Sharon Robinson. "The extraordinary perseverance and inner strength that these children have demonstrated in their young lives is inspiring. The winners, along with everyone who submitted essays, continue to exemplify the true meaning of the Breaking Barriers program." 
Sharon Robinson is the author of several widely praised nonfiction books and novels for children. In her novel, The Hero Two Doors Down (Scholastic; February 2016), she tells the story of Steven Satlow, a young Dodgers fan in the 1940s, who befriended the great Jackie Robinson after his family moved to Satlow's all-Jewish neighborhood. 
Since its inception in 1997, Breaking Barriers: In Sports, In Life has reached more than 34 million children and 4.6 million educators in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. For more information on Breaking Barriers: In Sports, In Life, please visit MLB.com/breakingbarriers.