Ahuja wins Princeton University contest.
By: Lea Kahn
Martin Luther King Day is an important holiday that should not be forgotten. Nor should the man who inspired it slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. be forgotten.
But how do you get across Dr. King’s message of understanding and improving race relations between blacks and whites in a 30-second radio spot on Jan. 20?
That’s the challenge that was issued by Princeton University and successfully met by Lawrence Middle School 7th-grader Amisha Ahuja, who won first prize in the university-sponsored contest earlier this month. The prize carries a $100 award.
Amisha’s 30-second radio spot was deemed to be the best among similar radio scripts submitted by 542 students in grades 7-12 and who attend 17 different public and private schools in New Jersey.
"I was pretty surprised that I won," said Amisha, who was obviously pleased and still somewhat surprised at the contest’s outcome, even one week after she picked up her $100 prize.
"I knew there were a lot of entries from private schools," she said. "I thought they would be really academic and their writing would be beyond mine. I didn’t know I could write that well."
Amisha said her mother was aware of the Princeton University-sponsored contest because Amisha’s older brother Nitin Ahuja, a 12th-grader at The Lawrenceville School had entered the same contest when he was in 7th grade. Her mother called for information and Amisha entered the competition.
This year, the contest called for writing a 30-second radio announcement not a conventional essay. But that did not daunt Amisha, who said she had written scripts when she participated in the national Odyssey of the Mind competition at the Lawrence Intermediate School. The Odyssey of the Mind team members write scripts for the plays they create.
"It wasn’t easy to write a script, but it was easier because I knew what a script would be like," she said, recalling her days as an Odyssey of the Mind team member.
Amisha said the opening phrase of her radio spot "A journey of a thousand miles," read by one of two narrators in the spot was inspired by her brother, who had quoted a portion of one of Dr. King’s speeches to her several months earlier.
"I liked it, and I put it in my script," Amisha said of that phrase. She said she thought two narrators in a radio script would be more interesting that one person. She also chose some ideas that she thought would best suit Dr. King, such as ridding the world of discrimination and learning to judge what is important.
Amisha said she remembered learning about Dr. King in elementary school. The teachers stressed that Dr. King tried to help end racism. Nevertheless, Amisha said, she had to do some research before writing the script.
"His is a name that everyone knows," she said. "It is good to remember the message that he had don’t judge other people by their differences. It’s not right. There are many people with things that make them different, but everybody’s blood is red. If we forget it, we will be right back where we started from."

