Click here to schedule a group visit to The Wall That Heals on September 19, 20, 21 & 22.


Middle School

Click here for The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien lesson plan suggestions for Grades 7, 8 & 9.


High School

Click here for The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien lesson plan suggestions for Grades 10, 11 &12.

Click here for a Teacher's Resource Guide for American Place Theatre.


Essay Contest

For students in grades 10, 11, and 12

Deadline: 
Essays must be received by October 16, 2013.

Essay prompt:
“If you were going to war, what would you carry?”

Who is eligible? 
Students in grades 10, 11, or 12 who attend either a public or private high school within the geographic boundaries of Elgin Community College District 509 are eligible to submit an entry to the contest. This includes Illinois school districts 300, 301, 303, and U-46 and the private schools within those boundary areas.

Format 
The entry should be between 500-700 words on the listed prompt. The entry should be typed and double-spaced. Essays may be written in either English or Spanish.

Submissions   
Entries should be mailed to:

Gail Borden Public Library
270 N. Grove Ave
Elgin, IL  60120
Attn: Melissa Lane

Prizes:            

1st  place     $100.00

2nd place     $  50.00

3rd place      $  25.00

Click here to print essay contest information.


Lao-American Historical Heritage Essay Contest

The Elgin-Rockford Lao Oral History Archives Project

Five Prizes of $100 each will be awarded for the best essays submitted by students of Lao heritage narrating in text (and images, if desired) the story of how their families fled Laos and arrived as refugees in the Elgin-Rockford area and struggled to make a new life here.

Four levels of awards will be made:
1-college, 2-high school, 1-middle school, 1-elementary school.

Requirements: Essays should be at least five pages in length. They may include photos or art work.  They should be based on interviews or conversations with family members who fled Laos after 1975 and eventually settled in the Elgin-Rockford area.  The essays do not necessarily need to identify family members by name, but details of age, place of birth, education, means of making a living, reasons for leaving and difficulties encountered in fleeing and starting a new life in the U.S. will help the reader understand your family’s history.  

Deadline, Judging and Awards Ceremony: The essays will be judged by an independent panel of professors from Northern Illinois University Center for Southeast Asian Studies. The deadline for submission is November 1, 2013.  Awards will be made on November 10, 2013 at the Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin as part of “The Big Read” project.

Click here to print application.

Please use the cover page form on the application when submitting your essay and send it by e-mail or regular mail on or before November 1, 2013 to

Dr. John Hartmann
Distinguished Teaching Professor& Board of Trustees Professor
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115
tel: 815-753-6462 (office); 815-758-5030 (residence)

e-mail:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.www.seasite.niu.edu/lao