Krannert Center hosted the 8th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Essay contest Saturday.

The essay contest topics were focused on social injustice in the students’ communities and the nation as a whole. Poetry or two page papers were submitted from nearly 300 students ranging from grades fourth through 12. Sixteen submissions were chosen as winning essays and seventeen were named honorable mention.

“They take on social justice issues in the form of a letter to [President] Obama or King,” said Nathaniel Banks, chair of the MLK Planning Committee and staff member in the office of the University’s Vice Chancellor for Public Engagement.

Some common topics chosen by students were poverty, violence and racism.

“I realized education was a pretty big problem we don’t usually acknowledge,” said Aishwarya Gautam, an eleventh grader from University Laboratory High School.

Each student who received honorable mention was awarded a certificate for participation at the ceremony and winners received gold medals, award certificates and $50 gift certificates to the Illini Union Bookstore.

Excerpts from the winning essays were displayed on posters throughout Krannert’s lobby. The winning students were allowed to choose which part of their essay to read aloud on stage in order “to give it more meaning to them and to the event,” said Mildred Trent, coordinator of the essay contest and associate dean of the College of Education.

The essay contest was an opportunity to address the subject of unequal education opportunities as well as a way for Gautam to express herself, she said.

“I thought it was a good opportunity to express myself and to shed light on an issue that gets overlooked a lot,” Gautam said.

In addition to presentations of awards, there was a series of performances during the event.

University performance groups Ominvov, Soul Premier, Inner Voices Social Issues Theatre and Chai-Town sang performed throughout the event.

Banks said the groups were chosen because they were students and had performed for other social justice and charity related events.

The essay contest is hosted every year at Krannert and is run by a 16 member planning committee. Over 60 departments from the University sponsor the event, Banks said.

“The planning committee thought to reach out to get students engaged in social issues,” Banks said.