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JCC student’s experience in Coast Guard leads to winning essay
Jackson Community College student W. Nathan Walters marveled as to why some people risked their lives to get into this country during his tour with the U.S. Coast Guard. He wrote about his experiences in an essay that was recently received first place in a writing contest from the Liberal Arts Network for Development, or LAND, for non-fiction.
Walters penned “Freedom Lessons” for his English 131 Writing Experience class, taught by Associate Professor Sue Stindt, based on his experiences with the Coast Guard in the Caribbean from 1992-94. He and his crew picked up several Cuban migrants trying to escape their country and get to the United States. “It makes you think, you see these people risking their lives to get into this country. It’s frightening,” Walters said.
He left the Coast Guard after two tours of duty, and is now in his second semester at Jackson Community College. He hopes to go into civil engineering, working with environmental engineering since he has experience with cleanup of pollution. He plans to transfer after he finishes at JCC, possibly to Michigan State University.
“I was very pleasantly surprised with the award,” Walters said. “Writing has been a fun hobby for me.”
Walters received $150 for the first place honor, presented at the LAND Conference recently in East Lansing.
