In Arrowhead High School’s creative writing class, students were assigned an essay they would later submit into a Teen Ink competition. This competition asked students to write an essay on the following prompt: “If I Were Mayor…”

Students submitted an essay of 1,000 words or less to the opinion section of Teen Ink’s website.

In the January issue, five student finalist essays were published. Arrowhead senior Cole Siepmann was one of those five finalists. He is in English teacher Elizabeth Jorgensen’s creative writing class.

“I want my creative writing students to engage in purposeful writing assignments in my classroom. In this particular contest, I encouraged my students to first educate themselves on local government. We discussed the mayor’s role and read about famous mayors. In class, we spent time looking at the Waukesha County’s Mayor website. Students learned about what the mayor can and can’t do and made plans for what students would do if they were in that role. As a class, we discussed how each student could use his or her passions to craft a successful essay,” said Jorgensen.

“I enjoyed hearing about what each student would want to change if they were mayor and I was impressed with my students’ ideas and passions. I saw that each student had something to say—and something they wanted to contribute to their community. I hope writing this essay helped each of my students not only reflect, but also put some of their ideas into action,” said Jorgensen.

The contest winner will get earn $500 and the second and third place winners will win $100.

“In addition to writing about something students were passionate about, the prize money and the chance at publication served as motivation for my students,” said Jorgensen.

In his essay, Siepmann stated all the reasons why he would be a good mayor.

“I would improve the lives of Milwaukeeans by addressing the three major issues that influence our society most: drug abuse, education, and road repair,” said Siepmann in his essay.

Siepmann stated how important the improvement of education on drugs is.

Here is where students can vote for Siepmann. Voting ends on January 15.

“In addition to the drug treatment center, I will expand drug education and addiction programs in schools so children in our community know the lasting effects of drugs and addiction,” wrote Siepmann.

Siepmann also stated how roads are a major issue in the state of Wisconsin.

“The amount of traffic in Milwaukee creates accidents, and is not what will bring our city future success. Rather than spending money on the inefficient and impractical trolley system, I will focus on decreasing traffic, making our roads safer, and making travel in and out of Milwaukee easier,” said Siepmann.

“Cole put a lot of time, effort, care and thought into his essay. Even if he doesn’t win, he accomplished a lot in this essay and he should be very proud of himself. I know I am—as I am sure many others at Arrowhead are—very proud of him,” Jorgensen said.