By Ruben A. Perez

Reporter

The Bakersfield College Writing Center is holding its second writing contest of the semester.  The topic is From the Fields to the Stars.

The topic was inspired by the story of astronaut Jose Hernandez, who spoke in March at BC about what he had to overcome to go from a worker’s son to an astronaut.

“He talked about achieving his dream of becoming an astronaut and the obstacles he faced to do so,” said Kelli Michaud, the project leader of the writing center.  “Having to listen to him was very inspirational so we decided to incorporate his visit into our writing contest.”

“The contest is to write a story between 500-1,000 words about a person like Jose striving toward or achieving his or her dream,” said Michaud.

The writing center usually does three writing contests each semester, but because of spring break being in March, only two were done.

The contest is open to BC students and alumni.

“The paper must be identified by the students ID number.  We don’t want any names.

“We don’t want to know who the person is while the committee is looking over them,” said Michaud.

Winners of the contest will get a certificate, a Starbucks gift card, and the work will be published in The Roughneck Review.

The full prompt for the essay competition is available at the writing center’s website. The last day to enter is April 30.