Polson senior is state VFW Voice of Democracy winner

Polson High School senior Joseph McDonald is on a roll.

Over the past two months, McDonald has been accepted into his college of choice, won the state VFW’s Voice of Democracy audio-essay contest and earned a first-place trophy at the Class A state speech and debate championships.

It all began for McDonald during a speech and debate meet in early December when he looked down at his phone and saw an email in his inbox from the Stanford University admissions office. Months earlier, McDonald had applied to his “dream school,” but said he was not really holding out much hope of being accepted. But then, the email came.

“I told myself I was not going to open any emails during the meet, so I had to spend the day competing knowing that the answer I had been waiting for was there in my pocket,” McDonald said. “When I finally did open the email and saw that ‘congratulations’ was the first word, I threw my phone across the room in celebration. I was absolutely thrilled.”

For McDonald, who is still contemplating his future major, the news left him in shock, but there was more to come.

McDonald was leaving school in early January when his phone rang with a call from an unknown number. Taking a chance, McDonald answered the call and got another shock when Ronan VFW Quartermaster Robert Shaw informed him that he had not only won the organization’s Voice of Democracy audio-essay contest at the local level, he had also won the regional and state competitions as well.

McDonald had entered the contest in late November after struggling with the assigned topic, “What makes America great?”

“It was kind of a hard topic for me because, I think America is great, but there are also a lot of things I don’t like about it. It took a lot of thinking, but I settled on the idea of egalitarianism, or the notion that everyone has an equal opportunity for success, and how it shows itself in my life.”

Each year, approximately 40,000 high school students enter the contest, with 53 selected to represent their state or territory at the national level.

According to McDonald, the planning process was much harder than the writing, as it took him five days to compose his thoughts before spending less than two hours writing his essay in which he details how America makes it possible for its citizens to achieve their dreams.

“Success isn’t about luck or chance; it’s about making a decision. Choosing to take that first step. The United States makes taking this step so much easier than other countries,” McDonald said in his essay.

Appropriately emphasizing McDonald’s point in the essay, the wins at the local, regional and state level come with $2,250 in scholarship money from the VFW, helping McDonald achieve his dream of attending Stanford.

In addition, the VFW will be sending McDonald to Washington, D.C., at the end of the month to compete in the national level of the competition, with the chance to win a $30,000 scholarship.

McDonald’s string of successes continued over the weekend as he and his debate partner, Davis Smith, capped a six-meet winning streak by taking home the Public Forum debate title at the Class A state speech and debate meet in Whitefish.

“When they announced that the Columbia Falls [competitors] had come in second, I just started smiling because I knew we had won it,” McDonald said about the win. “It was an amazing feeling.”

For McDonald, who played the lead in the school production of “Clue” earlier this school year and is also the top Polson boys singles tennis player, the recent success has been a bit of a whirlwind, but his senior year is far from over.

“It really has been a bit of a wild ride lately,” he said. “I feel like all of this is the culmination of all of the hard work I have put in during high school. I only hope I can keep it going as I transition into college.”

Reporter Jeremy Weber may be reached at 758-4446 or jweber@dailyinterlake.com.