Two sevier county students were awarded brand new iPads for their amazing entries in the annual Walters State John Gamble Essay Competition. Kinsey Mullins, a student at Northview Intermediate School, and Elijah Cates, a student at Northview Junior Academy, got iPad as prizes at a luncheon. The essay contest is held in a different county in the college’s service area each year on a rotating basis.
Along with the iPad, the winners also got gift card, spendable on educational applications. They also received priority in the John Gamble Scholarship should they choose to attend Walters State.
The John Gamble competition and scholarship at Walters State Community College honor the late Morristown native John Gamble, a multifaceted professional who excelled as a newspaper reporter, aide to a Tennessee governor, Hollywood agent, producer, and speechwriter for Sen.
Herbert Walters. His remarkable career was inspired by reading an entire encyclopedia set as a boy, leading him to correspond with over 40 world leaders by age 12, his letters so eloquent that recipients were unaware of his youth.
Passionate about broadening the horizons of East Tennessee youth, Gamble established an encyclopedia endowment fund at Walters State. Initially, the fund awarded essay winners encyclopedia sets, but it now provides iPads for access to vast digital resources. John’s brother, Ed Gamble, is a retired editorial cartoonist whose syndicated work, featured in five presidential libraries, reflects the family’s legacy of intellectual and creative achievement.