Valencia High School junior Adrian So has received the “Phoenician Award” and a $2,000 prize for being the runner-up at the San Diego Youth Leadership Conference, hosted by Military Order of the World Wars.
The conference was in June 2025 and So received the Phoenician Award recently.
The Phoenician Award is a national essay competition prize awarded annually to top student graduates of the MOWW Youth Leadership Conferences, according to the MOWW website.
So said his essay was called “Unity through Civic Education and National Service,” and it highlighted the importance of the specific education and national services that have a civic literary gap.
“I specifically noted that one-third of citizens can’t even identify the three branches of government, according to some studies. And strengthening civic education is presented because it ensures citizens understand the protections offered by the Constitution,” So said. “It also honors sacrifices by veterans by teaching before freedom of speech. Which goes into speech, worship, want and fear, because of the four freedoms that were given to us. And that’s by the sacrifices of the veterans. And I wanted to mention that specifically, because this was (Military Order of World Wars.)”
Going into the national services explanation of his essay, So said that service draws individuals out of isolation and into a community with a common goal.
“It’s like service and Americans can overcome this divisiveness and strengthen the social bonds, I would say, required to just sustain the nation, to make it what it was before. What veterans have sacrificed their lives for, right? So that’s what I basically was talking about through my essay,” So said.
Being one person out of 60, So said he felt thankful to be chosen as the runner-up because it is such a selective program.
“But getting the award was, I think (was) honestly surreal. Because it didn’t really necessarily like hit me yet in that sense,” So said.
So said now looking back at the experience, he was grateful for his family’s help and that he got the award despite saying he “was not a writer.”
So said that since the conference, he learned the importance of American leadership and government.
“From this, I was interested in politics and the economy. So, I started to search for opportunities in my community to become a political leader,” So said in a follow-up email.
He has been interning with Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, and attends local Chamber of Commerce meetings.
“I support local events by tabling, answering constituents, and preparing events for Pilar Schiavo. I also support events held by our office, aimed at public outreach. And I love it,” So wrote.
