ATLANTA--Rebecca Jones, a senior at St. Pius X High School, has received the $5,000 first prize in PLUS magazine's Laws of Life essay contest.

Her essay entitled, "When Some of the Most Terrific Feats in Life Should Go Unnoticed," was selected from 614 entries and will be published in the March 1996 issue of PLUS. The award is sponsored by the Peale Center for Christian Living and John Marks Templeton. The center is dedicated to the advancement of Christianity as a practical way of life.

"I was really overwhelmed when I learned I had won," she said. "I really didn't think when I submitted it that I'd have a chance of winning."

In her essay, Miss Jones, a parishioner of Holy Cross Church, Atlanta, told of her church's 1994 youth group trip to Orlando, Fla., to participate in a volunteer work camp where teens and adults repair the homes of the poor or elderly.

While the group was at a work site, a toddler from a neighboring house suffered a seizure and stopped breathing. Her group leader, John Ferrante, a nurse at St. Joseph's Hospital, rushed to the child and began administering CPR. Miss Jones, who had worked at St. Joseph's as a volunteer, assisted Ferrante with CPR.

She wrote, "As he administered CPR, I compressed her chest with my hands and a cold cloth to get her both breathing on her own and bring down her temperature. Within a few moments she coughed and began breathing weakly."

When paramedics arrived they found the child breathing and considerably cooler because of the quick reaction of Ferrante and Miss Jones.

"As I look back, I wasn't near the hero John was," she wrote. "He had the control over his feelings to act from the beginning. But I knew that what I had done when I entered the picture helped save her life. That evening, at an assembly, three girls from our group talked about how brave he was. I went unrecognized...As I sat there, I realized that sure, a little voice inside me wanted glory, but I knew what I had done. A little girl was alive because of a few actions I learned but never thought I'd use. Knowing that I was capable of doing something like this was enough reward."

Since then, she wrote, she has realized that some of the most terrific feats in life should go unnoticed. "This makes it possible for the action to be that much more special to the lives it touched."

Miss Jones was chosen as Holy Cross Parish youth of the year for the Atlanta Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women's annual recognition day Feb. 24 at the Cathedral of Christ the King. She is a concert violinist for the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra and will participate in the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games this summer. She has received a music scholarship to attend Agnes Scott College.