Colfax High School junior Rebekah Huber places first in essay contest

When Colfax junior Rebekah Huber decided to enter the Seattle World Affairs Council's essay contest this year, she decided to draw from personal experiences in writing to the prompt.

The prompt asked for entrants to pick a country and write about what they would do if they traveled there and explain the steps they would take to make those travels sustainable.

This prompt was based on the United Nations declaration of 2017 as “The International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development.” Huber, daughter of Dan and Robin Huber of Colfax, decided to write the essay with Indonesia as her destination.

“I wrote about Indonesia, where I have grown up for part of my life,” she said.

“We go back and forth because my family is running a global development business there.

We've gone back and forth probably half of my life.” She said that being able to write about a place she had already been was helpful.

“My experience living there definitely helped me,” she said.

Her essay was titled “Paving the Road for Sustainable Tourism in Lombak.” Lombak is an island east of Bali.

“It's starting to become more of a tourist island,” said Huber.

Of Bali, Huber said she has seen how tourism actually might be hurting that island.

“It's been so over-tourized that it has lost some of its culture,” she said.

In her essay, she highlighted ways she would practice sustainability as a tourist in Lombok.

“For me, sustainably executing this trip means respecting the local culture, cleaning up the natural environment, giving back to the economy and restoring marine life,” she wrote.

When Huber found out that she won the essay contest, which had more than 500 entrants, she said she was very surprised.

“I was so shocked!” she said.

Huber traveled with her family last week to Seattle for the awards ceremony, where she gave a short summary of her essay.

“I was really, really nervous,” she said.

For her first place essay, Huber won a $500 coupon from Expedia for hotel stays and flight packages.

To read Huber's essay, visit the contest website.

http://www.world-affairs.org/2017-world-citizen-essay-contest/