2026 High School Essay Contest Winners
Connecticut Bar Foundation Announces Winners of 26th Annual Quintin Johnstone Statewide High School Essay Contest
Hartford, CT (July 21, 2026) – Connecticut Bar Foundation’s (CBF) James W. Cooper Fellows are pleased to announce the winners of the 26th Annual Quintin Johnstone Statewide High School Essay Contest. The two statewide winners are Julia Rodrigues, from Danbury High School and Layla Latif, from Naugatuck High School. The runner-up is Anuhya Shah, from Seymour High School. The contest winners and runner-up are awarded cash prizes of $2,000 and $1,000, respectively. This year, the contest generated over 100 submissions from schools across Connecticut. Members of the James W. Cooper Fellows Program volunteered to evaluate all the essays to select the winners. These Fellows are nominated by their peers based on their outstanding service to the profession and larger community and are elected by CBF’s Board of Directors.
The contest is open to all high school students in Connecticut and invites entrants to prepare an essay on a legal topic that is relevant to students. This year’s fact pattern, “After the Gavel Falls: Navigating Education Policy in the Wake of Mahmoud v. Taylor” delved into the experiences of two high school students, who received written parental opt-out requests regarding a certain unit of the curriculum. One of the students refuses to comply with the opt-out request on the grounds that the unit did not conflict with their personal beliefs and is suspended by the High School for insubordination. Essayists were asked to advise the Board of Education about the legality of the school’s policy. The students performed research and analysis to draft a memorandum that addressed these issues.
Justice William H. Bright Jr., Justice Andrew McDonald, and Justice Joan K. Alexander attended a special ceremony at the Connecticut Supreme Court on June 9th, 2026, to honor and present awards to the contest winners. In his remarks, Justice McDonald noted that “[t]he winning students did an excellent job analyzing this challenging issue.” The statewide winners and runner-up attended the ceremony to accept their awards along with family members and representatives from their high schools.
Julia Rodrigues, one of the statewide winners of the 2025-2026 Essay Contest, is a junior at Danbury High School. She is a dedicated student and member of the National Honor Society who consistently earns distinguished honor roll recognition while balancing academics with extracurricular involvement. Rodrigues participates in the marching band and works with a nonprofit childcare program, where she has developed leadership and community engagement skills. She plans to pursue a degree in electrical engineering while continuing to cultivate her interests in writing and art.
The other statewide winner of the 2025-2026 Essay Contest, Layla Latif, is a sophomore at Naugatuck High School. She is a member of the Medical Careers Club and the National Honor Society, and she values stepping outside her comfort zone by pursuing new opportunities that support her future goals. After high school, Latif plans to attend a private college and later medical school, with aspirations of becoming a cardiologist or cardiothoracic surgeon.
Anuhya Shah, the runner-up, is a senior at Seymour High School and the salutatorian of the Class of 2026. Throughout high school, she maintained high honors while completing a rigorous course load of Advanced Placement, dual-enrollment, and honors classes. She served as captain of the Seymour High School Debate Team, class representative for Student Council, and event coordinator for Spanish Club, while also volunteering extensively in her community. Shah is a state-licensed and nationally certified EMT and completed an independent capstone project on CAR T-cell therapy. This fall, she will attend Quinnipiac University’s highly competitive Entry-Level Master’s Physician Assistant (ELMPA) program, where she will pursue a career as a Physician Assistant.
