DAPHNE, Ala. — The Daphne Optimist Club honored three local high-school students who displayed exemplary writing skills.

The winners were selected in February at the local level and the top essay by Emily Grant advanced to the district competition last week. The results are pending.

The essay contest topic was how education is the key to a successful future.

Grant — a student at Bayside who was selected as the best essayist — put her own spin on the topic.

“I wrote about how my experience as a student is going to help my career and my life past school. I talked about how I believe some experiences that I picked up from school extend beyond just academic things. I talked about how school teaches leadership and it helps channel creativity and how that can be really beneficial in the real world after you get out of the classroom. You can’t just think of school for the facts and the knowledge. It is the whole experience that is really beneficial,” Grant said.

John Clark, also a Bayside student, said he wrote about his educational experiences so far.

“I basically wrote about how my previous education has given me success in school up until now and how I think my education will be a success for my future,” Clark said.

Spanish Fort High School student Clayton Edwards drew his inspiration from the etymology of education.

“I wrote about how education is the key to a successful future. Ultimately, in my opinion, it gets down to the root of the word, which is Latin and ultimately means to bring forth or to draw from within. It is ultimately unlocking things in your life that are going to help you out later in life and it is not just classroom work. It is everything around you,” Edwards said.

The winners entered the contest at the suggestions of teachers and saw it as an opportunity to test their writing abilities.

Clark’s English teacher suggested he apply.

“Ultimately, I thought it would be a bit of a test of my writing abilities. I have gotten a lot of compliments that my writings are pretty good, as far as small writing, like school-work essays and a little poetry here and there.” Edwards said.

All three winners were surprised to be selected as a finalist.

“I was surprised really; I never really thought of myself as much of a writer. I do okay in English and I enjoy writing but it was a good confidence boost to win.” Clark said.

“I was really honored to be considered within the top three and apparently a lot of people in my school thought it was a great opportunity,” Edward said.

The three winners plan to use the savings bonds they won for their college education.

Daniel McCann with the Daphne Optimist Club said the essay contest is one of the many ways the club tries to fulfill its main objective.

“The Optimist’s mission is to bring out the best in kids so it is one of our traditional academic contests to help kids with scholarships,” McCann said.

Contest information was sent out to all of the local schools, McCann said. The club received 54 700- to 800-word entries and McCann said the club was pleased with the overall quality of the essays.

The Daphne Optimist Club meets at 7 a.m. Thursday mornings in the Community Life Center of the Daphne United Methodist Church.