2020 Silver Pen Winners

On April 3rd, Osprey Village, a luxury senior living community on Amelia Island, announced the winners of the Silver Pen Scholarship Competition. The Silver Pen Competition has been hosted by Osprey Village’s parent company, The Maxwell Group, since 2012. The Maxwell Group has awarded over $275,000 to high school seniors to assist with their college costs. The goal of the competition is to bridge the communication gap between high school seniors and community Members.

The community Members at Osprey Village play an integral role as judges in the competition. “It’s a great scholarship opportunity, as local students write essays on a chosen topic and our Members get to read and judge the entries based on the set criteria” said Matthew Barger, Osprey Village’s executive director. “Our Members love participating and it’s a great way to connect with our local community”. This year, the essay topic chosen by Osprey Village was “In recent years trade schools have been increasingly popular and lucrative to the work force. In this essay please compare and contrast the outcome of receiving a four-year degree from a university or attending a trade school for a more hands on skill set.” All entries were required to be written between 600 – 1000 words.

The Silver Pen Competition is open to high school seniors who live or attend school within 25 miles of Osprey Village, employees of Osprey Village and their families, and community residents’ immediate family. Members at Osprey Village play two integral roles in the competition. The panel chooses the essay topic for the competition and once the essays are submitted, the panel gathers to judge the entries and choose a winner. To keep the competition fair, all personal identifiers (name, school, contact information) are redacted when the essays are submitted to the Maxwell Group. Each essay is then given a unique number and distributed for judging. Judges assess the essays based on research, insight and perspective, theme development, inspirational quality, meaningful personal connect, creativity and clarity of ideas.

To learn more about the Silver Pen Competition, visit silverpen-slc.com. Osprey Village is an all-inclusive luxury retirement community with Independent Living, Assisted Living, Memory Care and Rehab services. The community’s premier lifestyle helps Members live longer, healthier, happier lives. For more information about Osprey Village, visit Osprey-Village.com.