Southern Nevada 8th grader named a winner in inaugural America's Field Trip contest

LAS VEGAS (KTNV — A Las Vegas Valley student will get to kick off the new school year with the field trip of a lifetime.

I spoke with local 8th grader Amelie, who is one of 75 first place awardees in a new nationwide scholastic contest called “America’s Field Trip.” She’s also the only first place winner from Nevada!

The contest asked students across the country to submit a video of them responding to the question, “What does America mean to you?” It challenged students to think critically about our nation’s journey to becoming a more perfect union.

In her video, Amelie spoke about the need to make public spaces and architecture more welcoming to people from all walks of life, and to encourage more face-to-face connection and conversation. She says people often feel empowered to say hateful things behind the shield of screens and that we need more in-person discussions with our peers to truly understand one another and to be able to empathize.

“If we’re all stuck in our houses being online, anonymous behind our usernames, we can’t really talk about our issues as well as if we’re in a park, maybe connecting over a conversation you can’t just log off of,” Amelie said.

What really stood out to me was when she told me that kids are definitely taking notice of the political polarization our country is dealing with. In fact, she said she’s seeing fellow students actually mimic the behavior of adults in this incredibly volatile political climate and election cycle.

“Do you think the same divisiveness we’re seeing in adults on both sides of the aisle is even trickling down to young people right now?” I asked Amelie.

“Yes of course, even in my school, there was political debate practically about what kids knew, and I noticed there were little spouts of things that might not exactly be too accurate going on in these conversations. And these conversations are ultimately what will shape our political standing,” Amelie responded.

She and the other contest winners were selected by a panel of current and former educators. It was actually an educator in Amelie’s life, Miss Rush, who encouraged her to enter the contest.

If your child may be interested, another America’s Field Trip contest for the 2024-2025 school year will begin around September. You can sign up for updates here.

For winning, Amelie will get to go on a field trip to Washington, D.C. That’ll include a visit to the National Archives, and she tells me she can’t wait to dig into our country’s history. It’s really the perfect place to reflect on what America means to her.