Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette Fox Chapel Area High School senior Elise Liu works on the school's newspaper, Fox Tales. Elise is one of four national finalists in the Idea of America essay contest sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Elise Liu would like to be a lawyer someday and argue constitutional law.

The senior at Fox Chapel Area High School has an intricate knowledge of the amendment that allows a U.S. citizen to do just that.

		Online essay Read the eassy by Fox Chapel Area High School senior Elise Liu

Elise, 17, of O'Hara, is one of four finalists from across the nation in the Idea of America essay contest. Held as part of President Bush's We the People program, the contest seeks students who understand America's founding principles.

This year's essayists wrote about the historical debate the country's founders had over the benefits and disadvantages of adopting the First Amendment to the Constitution.

"I analyzed what went into it and why it was important, the political comment and the thoughts at the time," Elise said.

Her essay focused on the debate over the First Amendment between the Federalists, who favored a strong national government, and the Antifederalists.

"Both sides agreed that freedom of speech and religion and petitioning the government are good things, but they disagreed on how to protect them," she said.

The other three finalists, all seniors, are from New York, Michigan and Maryland. Each will receive $1,000 and a medal and will attend an awards ceremony Nov. 6 at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. One of them will be named the grand prize winner and receive an additional $4,000.

"Each of the essay winners demonstrated an exceptional understanding of historical deliberations on the First Amendment as well as how the amendment impacts our nation today," said Bruce Cole, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, sponsor of the contest.

The competition drew entries from more than 1,700 high school juniors. Essays were reviewed first by history teachers, then by the staff at the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum in Chicago and the National Council on the Humanities. Mr. Cole made the final selections.

Elise said she learned about the contest while browsing online and spent the better part of spring break last school year working on her essay.

"I was very honored because it was, like, a big deal in the school," she said.

"They put up posters of things like this to encourage us to enter," she said.

Elise, the daughter of Dr. Yongjian Liu and Dr. Helen Wang, is editor of the student newspaper, co-captain of the debate team and a member of the school's fencing team.