Our Lady of Perpetual Help School Student Awarded Runner-Up Prize in Optimum Community’s Black History Month Essay Contest

8th Grader Emily Afriyie from Our Lady of Perpetual Help School was a runner-up in Optimum Community’s inaugural Black History Month Essay Contest. Her essay was chosen from more than 450 entries in the middle school category. Students throughout the tristate area were invited to submit an essay of 500 words or less naming an African American with whom they would choose to spend a day and explain why. Emily was awarded an iPad Mini and proudly read her essay about physicist and educator Edward Bouchet, the first African American to ever graduate from Yale University.