Students Advance To Regional Power Of The Pen

January 27, 2022 by Staff Report

Qualifying seventh- and eighth-grade writers in the Lake Erie Region competed in the District 1 writing tournament hosted virtually by Lake Erie College on Jan. 8.

In the Power of the Pen district tournament, 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.

Team award winners in the seventh-grade are: first place – Kenston Middle School, Bainbridge Township, coached by Tamara Cabrera-Perrine; second place – St. John School, Ashtabula, coached by Kim Porter; and third place – Kirtland Middle School, Kirtland, coached by Sue Summerhill.

Team award winners for the eighth-grade are: first place – Shore Middle School, Mentor, coached by Kathy Weber;
second place – Perry Middle School, Perry, coached by Amy Stavar; and third place – Cornerstone Christian Academy, Willoughby Hills, coached by Emily Glontz.

Seventh-grade top individual award winners are:
first place – Payton Winters, Perry Middle School;
second place – Kherington Swader, Kenston Middle School;
third place – Porter Fontana, Kenston Middle School;
fourth place – Ava Lucas, Chagrin Falls Middle School;
fifth place – Isla Yellen, West Geauga Middle School;
sixth place – Emmanuella Chelbezan, Kenston Middle School;
seventh place – Fiona Martin, Andrews Osborne Academy; eighth place – Evan Whittaker, Perry Middle School; ninth place – Abrielle Allen, Chardon Middle School; and 10th place – Felicia Gilreath, Shore Middle School.

Eighth-grade top individual winners are: first place – Marie Cain, Chagrin Falls Middle School; second place – Tess Snyder, Chagrin Falls Middle School; third place – Kiersten Chaney, Chagrin Falls Middle School; fourth place – Avery Carlisle, Kirtland Middle School; fifth place – Raymie Fill, Conneaut Middle School; sixth place – Isabelle Copeland, Kirtland Middle School; seventh place – Kendall Sims, Cornerstone Christian Academy; eighth place – Libby Inman, Windham Junior High; ninth place – Audriana Polzer, Perry Middle School; and 10th place – Symone Bibb, Heritage Middle School.

In addition, seventh-graders Isla Yellen and Payton Winters and eighth-graders Marie Cain and Isabelle Copeland earned Best of Round honors.

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 Lake Erie Regional Tournament virtually hosted by Hudson Middle School on March 5. In all, 65 students from the Lake Erie College tournament will advance to the Lake Erie Regional Tournament, together with those who advance from District 2 in a Jan. 29 tournament in Shaker Heights. Qualifying students from the Lake Erie Regional Tournament will advance to a state tournament May 12-13 at Otterbein University.

The Lake Erie Region includes Ashtabula, Geauga, Lake, southeastern Cuyahoga and northern Summit counties.