District Power of the Pen competition held at SSCC

The District Power of the Pen Competition for seventh and eighth graders was held once again at Southern State Community College on Feb. 19.  There were around 200 students on the central campus from fifteen different schools across five counties.  Tami Ellis, Tournament Coordinator, from Whiteoak Junior High School  teamed up with Rhonda Fannin and Joy Gilmore, both representing SSCC and the SOCOE  in an ongoing “Partnering for Student Success” effort to bring the writers to the campus.  

The students wrote in 3 forty-minute sessions and were scored by judges from the participating schools.  All first place papers from each round were read by a group of master judges.  Judges from the college included:  Ken Holliday, Assistant Professor of English and HPER and Louis Mays, Librarian and Professor.  Caitlin Ryan of the Highland County Press also served as a master judge.  The Best of the Best winners received journals.  A big congratulations goes to Highland County’s Greenfield Middle School for winning first place in the seventh grade competition.  Around 50% of the writers will move on to the Regional competition at Unioto Junior High School on March 20.  Good luck to all of the area’s writers.