10 Highland County students participate in state Power of the Pen competition
Ten area students representing three Highland County schools participated in the 28th Annual Power of the Pen State Competition for young creative writers, held May 24-25 at Wooster College.
Maria Onusko, Madison Foltz, Megan Hardesty and Veronica Olaker of Greenfield Middle School; Taylor Tackett of Whiteoak Junior High School; and Angel Reaves, Michaela Hughes, Vanessa McGinnis and Mackenzie Conlon of Hillsboro Middle School qualified to write in the state competition after receiving high scores during the qualifying district and regional competitions.
Greenfield Middle School student Madison Schumaker also participated at the state competition as a "runner," assisting the tournament judges.
The students of Greenfield, Whiteoak and Hillsboro were, respectively, coached by Barbara Cook, Tami Ellis and Dan Spidel.
Students arrived at Wooster College, located in Wooster, Ohio, on May 24, and received orientation to the competition and participated in social events on the campus.
The morning of May 25, the competition began. The competition is divided into two sections, for seventh- and eighth-graders. Students write in three 35-minute rounds, with the top 50 participants in each grade level moving on the the "power round." The top 100 vie for trophies, certificates, savings bonds, cash prizes and college scholarships to Wooster at values totaled at more than $100,000 "for demonstrating excellence in writing."
Each creative writing round is based on a prompt that is not known to students in advance of each session.
Megan Hardesty, of Greenfield, qualified for the top 50 in the eighth grade to participate in the "power round."
During the orientation, judges for the competition were told they had "the privilege to find astonishing writing."
The tournament is the culmination of 28 district and 12 regional competitions held throughout the state of Ohio. Approximately 700 writers were chosen from 276 schools in Ohio.
The Power of the Pen works with 500 middle schools throughout Ohio and generates approximately 25,000 pieces of writing annually.