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Mount Carmel Graduate Garners Prestigious Writing Award

Mount Carmel Graduate Garners Prestigious Historical Writing Award

            Chicago – 2006 Mount Carmel High School graduate Frank Pucci was awarded the Verna Ross Orndorff Scholarship Certificate presented by the Illinois State Historical Society (ISHS).  The award is given annually to a high school student for the best original essay submitted on Abraham Lincoln or the Civil War era in Illinois.  The essay must be 1,500 words and is evaluated on excellence of topic, research, grammar, and use of language.

            Pucci was granted the award for his excellence in writing the historical essay, “Rumble in the Wigwam: The Republican National Convention of 1860 and the Story of the City that Shaped it.”  The essay was originally written for submission in the Chicago Metro History Fair in 2006.

            ISHS Educational Affairs Committee Chairman, Happy Dean, said that Pucci’s essay “was one of the best student essays she has ever read,” and she complimented him on his research and clear writing style.

            Pucci was presented with the award last May in a Student Recognition Assembly at Mount Carmel, and presented with his $1000 cash prize by ISHS board member, Redd Griffin.  The essay was also published in the July – August 2007 edition of Illinois Heritage, a publication of the Illinois State Historical Society.

            “Frank Pucci has shown in his essay how people, ideas, and events converged to bring about Abraham Lincoln’s nomination for President at the Republican Party’s National Convention in Chicago.  Lincoln’s historic launch to the Presidency occurred in a building called the Wigwam, which once stood just ten miles, or twenty minutes northwest of here, (Mount Carmel High School) where Lake Street crosses the Chicago River.  Frank’s essay makes us aware of how, what has happened close to us, in time and space, in the metropolitan area we live in – can have great effects on history and the world,” stated Griffin.

            Now a freshman at the University of Chicago, Pucci has plans to study history and political science, and perhaps pursue a career in politics.