Park Place students won big in the national Bing Summer Story Challenge. From left to right are Adrian Pizarro, Johana Contreras Castillo, and grand prize winner Shaun Toliao.

Third-grader Shaun Toliao will be taking his family to Hawaii, just for writing a story about what he did last summer. The Park Place Elementary School student was the grand prize winner of the Bing in the Classroom Summer Story Challenge, a digital storytelling contest sponsored by Microsoft.

He also won a Surface Pro Tablet and other tech prizes, as well as the opportunity to take classes in digital literacy while in Hawaii. Toliao’s prize is worth a grand total of $25,000.

Three other Park Place students won prizes as well: third-grader Johana Contreras Castillo, fourth-grader Journey Torres, and fifth-grader Adrian Pizarro. They were able to demonstrate that they know how to choose keywords for Bing searches and find out more about their summer activities. Out of a total of 16 prizes nationwide, Park Place students won four of them.

“We are always looking for ways to show how smart and amazing our students are,” said Park Place Principal Silvia Trinh. “We are answering the call to make students responsible, respectful, and ready citizens of our digital world.”