Joseph Dabbs won a business network organization's 
essay contest with his piece on Germany's efforts to rebuild
its economy after World War II.

Joseph Dabbs Jr. a student at Leonia High School, was honored at a June 12 luncheon for winning the 2008 B. Franklin Reinauer II Free Enterprise Award. Other Leonia High School Students Matthew Pesesky won last year and Cary Gitter won two years before that.

The award is given by the Foundation for Free Enterprise, a statewide business organization. The topic students write about annually is "The Power of the Free Market."

Dabbs, an Edgewater resident, titled his essay "The German Economic Miracle" and discussed how that country recovered after being in shambles after World War II.

"The government controlled and regulated the economy and when that was eliminated the economy flourished," Dabbs said.

He got the idea from watching a documentary and then did a lot of research on the time period.

"I thought it was a perfect topic," he said.

Obviously interested in the subject, Dabbs will study international business in college next year. Although the award includes a scholarship to Ramapo College of New Jersey, he will attend the University of California State University-Long Beach.

His mom, Laurie McCurry, said it’s great that the Foundation is more than "just business people" but also is an organization that teaches about the free market and how it works.

"Kids get out of college and thrown into the business world," she said. "This helps them a lot."

Leonia Superintendent Bernard Josefsberg said Dabbs definitely deserves the honor and is proud of the high school’s continued success.

"That’s attributed to Tim Cullen [a social studies teacher] and what he does at the high school," Josefsberg said. "He makes good use of these essay contests in his classes."