NHS Senior Earns Runner Up Win in Optimum’s Hispanic Heritage Essay Contest

Congratulations to Joanna Gentle, a senior at Norwalk High School, who was named a runner up winner in Optimum’s Hispanic Heritage Essay Contest in partnership with TelevisaUnivision.

Gentle was awarded a certificate and a new iPad, which was presented by Jay Keel, market business manager for Optimum, and Esme Lombard, government affairs for Optimum, on Monday, Dec. 18. She was celebrated by State Sen. Bob Duff, NHS Principal Dr. Lynne Moore, Asst. Principal Dr. Dan Sullivan, and school counselor Mike Surace.

Contest participants from Optimum’s 21-state footprint were asked to write about how a person, group of people, or cultural experience (i.e. TV show, movie, music, app, event) helped them connect to Hispanic culture and what it meant to them. Winners were selected from East and West regions and in middle and high school categories.

For her essay, Gentle wrote about the importance of Nickelodeon’s “Dora the Explorer” during her childhood and the person she is today. The animated series led by Dora Márquez, a seven-year-old Latina girl who loves going on adventures, opened up the Spanish language to Gentle one word at a time. 

It also brought Gentle closer to her mother who struggled to teach her daughter Spanish while struggling with English herself. Gentle moved between her mother and father’s households growing up, hearing English with her father and in school.

Love always connected mother and daughter, but learning how to speak and understand Spanish gave Gentle a greater connection to her mother as well as her older siblings who were born in Colombia. Learning a second language also allowed Gentle to connect better with her community.

“It was really impactful because I can now communicate with not only my family but other people in our community,” Gentle said about watching “Dora the Explorer” growing up. “I really enjoy being able to surprise people when I speak Spanish because I don’t look like someone who would speak Spanish. But it's really nice to surprise people.”

This year, Optimum had its largest number of student submissions for the Hispanic Heritage Essay contest which launched over 10 years ago.

“We are thrilled to see such great excitement around the contest and the students’ passion to spotlighting the contributions that the Hispanic American community makes to our everyday lives. We look forward to celebrating with the winners during our recognition events in the coming weeks and to continue supporting and uplifting all the communities we serve," said Lisa Gonzalez Anselmo, Chief Diversity Officer at Optimum, in a press release.