NORTH CANTON, – North Canton educational nonprofit Power of the Pen today announced the results of the South-Central Ohio Region District 1 tournament hosted virtually by Circleville High School on Jan. 8.
In the Power of the Pen district tournament, seventh- and eighth-grade students competed in a series of extemporaneous rounds of creative writing tasks, each in response to an open-ended prompt. The district tournament is both a team and an individual competition.
Mount Vernon Middle School, coached by Esther Sadoff, placed second as a team for the eighth-grade District 1 tournament.
Eighth-grade top individual winners at the District 1 tournament include Mount Vernon Middle School students Lily Grace, 2nd place, and Natasha Jose, 11th place.
Power of the Pen, one of Ohio’s largest educational enhancement programs, seeks to positively impact academic achievement of the state’s middle-schoolers by helping young people find and develop a creative voice uniquely their own.
All of the individual award winners will advance to the South-Central Regional Tournament virtually hosted by Ann Simpson Davis Middle School on March 5. In all, 102 students from the Circleville tournament will advance to the South-Central Regional Tournament, together with those who advance from District 2 in a Feb. 12 tournament in Gahanna. Qualifying students from the South-Central Regional Tournament will advance to a state tournament May 12-13 at Otterbein University.
The South-Central Region includes Delaware, Franklin, Knox, Licking, Madison, Marion, Morrow, Union, Athens, Fairfield, Gallia, Hocking, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Pickaway, Pike, Ross, Scioto and other counties.
Power of the Pen is Ohio’s original interscholastic creative writing program for middle schools. Seventh- and eighth-grade students in Ohio compete in a series of district, regional and state competitions by writing creative responses using provided prompts. The 501(c)(3) organization was founded in 1986 by the late Lorraine B. Merrill and has since become one of the state’s largest educational enhancement programs. About 3,000 students participate in tournaments each year, while in-class supporting materials are provided for nearly 300 middle schools in Ohio. Support for the 2021-2022 academic year has been provided by Ohio Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. For more information, visit powerofthepen.org.
