While members of the genomics community argue daily over patents, stock value, and who gets credit for what, ideals tend to get glossed over. In the responses to a youth essay contest, we found some words of wisdom (and humor) from people young enough to see things as they could be.

These excerpts were taken with permission from winning essays in the People’s Genome Celebration Youth Essay Contest, responding to the question: “How is the sequencing of the human genome relevant to you?”