The four students who won the Good Citizen award also competed in the multi-level scholarship portion of the program by writing a supervised, timed essay of 500 words or less based on this year’s topic: “Our American Heritage and Our Responsibility for Preserving It – How has America advanced the cause of freedom in the rest of the world?” An independent panel of judges reviewed and scored each student’s application to determine the Washington County Chapter winner, Brandon Paul, whose application was forwarded on to be included in further competition. He received an additional $100. Two students will be selected as the national winners, and each is invited to Washington, D.C. to attend the DAR Continental Congress, where they are each awarded with a $5,000 scholarship, an inscribed silver bowl and a certificate of recognition.