Warsaw Community High School announced the winners of the school contest for Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest.
The student winners are: first place, Zach Rooker; second place, Vanessa Malagon; and third place, Grace Robison.
The competition, presented in partnership with the Indiana Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, is part of a national program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance and competition.
Wednesday more than 50 high school students from Warsaw Community High School participated in the Poetry Out Loud school contest in the Performing Arts Center. Prizes for this competition were purchased through generous donations from AAUW, Tri Kappa and the WCHS PTO. Serving on the community panel of judges were Pam Chastain, Paulette Davis and Velma Pfleiderer.
Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition to high schools across the country. Poetry Out Loud uses a pyramid structure. Beginning at the classroom level, winners advance to a schoolwide competition, then to state competition and ultimately to the National Finals in Washington, D.C. Nearly 350,000 students across the country took part in Poetry Out Loud in 2009-10.The WCHS winner will advance to the state contest Feb. 26 in Indianapolis. Each champion at the state level will receive $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to compete for the national championship April 28-29. The school of the state champion will receive $500 for the purchase of poetry books.
