Ashley Eberhart is not Jewish, but she will always remember the Holocaust.

When searching for scholarship opportunities online, the Downers Grove teenager came across the Holocaust Remembrance Project, a national essay contest. In 1,500 words or less, participants had to write about why the Holocaust matters today.

“Growing up, studying the Holocaust always just seemed like a formality,” Ashley said. “This project made you make connections between then and now.”

Never wanting to adhere to the standard five-paragraph essay format, Ashley decided to use Martin Niemoller’s poem, “First They Came For the Jews,” to guide her essay. By breaking up the poem and weaving in her own thoughts and beliefs about genocide, Ashley developed an essay with graceful, mature language that moved the judges.

“Her paper had a powerful tone that makes the reader stop and think,” said Angela Vlachos Ruth, executive director of Holland & Knight Charitable Foundation. “Ashley is a gifted writer who invokes not only thought, but also emotion in her words.”

As one of 10 first place finalists chosen from more than 4,100 entries, Ashley will spend a week with 12 Holocaust survivors in Washington, D.C., starting Sunday, July 15.

Ashley will hear the survivors’ stories and walk with them through the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. She will also meet New York Times best-selling author Ishmael Beah, who wrote “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.”

“I cannot believe I get to meet so many amazing people. These people have been through so much and to meet them is going to be incredible,” Ashley said.

The winners will also attend an awards banquet in the nation’s capital July 19. A keynote address will be given by former senior government official and presidential advisor Stuart Eizenstat.

Each student finalist will be awarded a scholarship ranging from $2,500 to $10,000 at the dinner, hosted by Holland & Knight. This year, in honor of Virginia Tech University Professor and Holocaust survivor Liviu Librescu, one student will be awarded a special one-time scholarship of $17,000.

“What I look forward to most is learning how to bring things back and start educating youth,” Ashley said. “So many people look upon (the Holocaust) as a historical event and feel a twinge of guilt or sorrow, but they don’t realize how it effects the world today. Genocide still happens. We need to be compassionate as human beings, and we can’t just stand by and be complacent.”

Ashley, who will be a junior at the Culver Academies in Indiana this fall, has spent her life focusing on local community service, but now wants to reach out to change the perspectives of her peers. What started out as an opportunity to win scholarship money for college has developed into a lifelong journey for Ashley.

“I must be a voice to the silenced, lest I slip into silence as well,” Ashley wrote in the conclusion of her essay.