Present and Past Judges
Contest Panel Judges select the most creative entries by grade level.
How submissions are graded:
Since 1997, a panel of Orange County teachers have been designated as contest judges to evaluate every submission. No teacher is allowed to judge any submission from his or her school and can only judge submissions from other schools. This eliminates the possibility of bias.
Participants are evaluated for creativity by grade level. Participants are graded within each classroom to allow friendly competition. A lower advanced class, for example, does not compete with a more advanced class. Since judges may read thousands of submissions, it is helpful that students use innovative phrases and creative word choices.
When first-prize winners are culled into a final best-of-the-best stack, the grand-prize Diamond Winner is chosen by founder Diamond Mike Watson. To maintain the integrity of the contest, every effort is made to ensure these excellent essays are completed in class, are not plagiarized, and appear to be the student’s normal writing ability.
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Sherri Adams
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Jennifer Ahn
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Hazel Alvarez
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Michele Arbozow
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Teri Azvedo
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Sandra Babic
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Marina Baltazar
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Cristina Barber
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Kim Bass
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Jan Bryant
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Jennifer Busby
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Roxanne Blake
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Sharon Cecchi
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Jeff Chien
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Gail Dasno
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Danille DeFrank
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Kathy DiCato
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Leilani DiCato
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A. Kalfus-Diaz
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Paulette Dunn
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Shelli Eckenrod
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Amanda Estrada
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Jamey Flynn
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Jennifer Ferrara
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Colleen Ferreira
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Randi Finney
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Amanda Frazier
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Jane Freet
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Karen French
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Gail Gilpin
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Stephanie Goodenough
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Jim Harris
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Tracy Heck
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Marina Hernandez
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Sonya Hollon
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Debbie Ingram
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Annie Kensinger
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Jamie Lassaude
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Laura Little
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Maggie Lopez
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John MacMurray
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Kathi Manuel
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Anne Marie
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Nancy Marosi
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Michelle Matney
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Janette Mattoon
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Elizabeth Merket
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Katie Michels
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Bonnie Morse
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M’Liss Patterson
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Esmeralda Pulido
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Mike Rager
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Jan Richards
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Judy Richonne
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Angie Rumsey
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Debbie Ronstadt
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Cyndi Robbins
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Valarie Ruig
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Elaine Sandberg
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Nicole Schlosser
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Debra Sheehan
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Diane Sinclair
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Marsha Sipkovich
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Anna Smith
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Mindy Steele
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Marianne Stewart
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Laura Sutton
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Mary Wilson
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Hoa Tran
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