BMS Power of the Pen Team Wins District Competition!

March 11, 2013

In one of the toughest tournaments to date, the Brady Middle School eighth grade Power of the Pen team came in FIRST PLACE at the District competition this past weekend. Held at Laurel School, this District contest was comprised of some of the best writers from top schools in the state!

Power of the Pen is an interscholastic program in writing for 7th and 8th grade students. The mission is ‘empowerment in writing at an early age through evoking self confidence in students, inspiring a love for both writing and reading, and embracing the art of creative expression through writing as a life skill.’ BMS students have competed in the Power of the Pen program for more than 20 years, since its inception, and sent both 7th and 8th grade teams to the District contest.

In the course of one morning, students are given three separate “prompts” or ideas on which to base their stories. Each student has 40 minutes per session to come up with a creative story that will create a unique and descriptive image in the judges’ eyes. Seventh and eighth grade teams, each comprised of six students per school are given different prompts. This year’s prompts included: "Banned: Write a narrative based on someone who is" and "Laugh at yourself before anyone can beat you to it".

“It gives these students a chance to be creative,” said teacher and coordinator Jeff Kapostasy. “In this age of standardized testing and a national turn away from creativity, this gives students who are so inclined the ability to shine.”

Individual awards are also presented:

Jake Van De Walle, who recently placed 5th in the Regional Spelling Bee, took home the First Place title in the 8th grade writing competition. He also had a Best of Round Award for his brilliant writing.

Maddy Carek helped Orange sweep the awards, winning 2nd place out of all of the 8th graders and winning an Honorable Mention for a Best of Round.

Isabel Sands also turned in an amazing writing performance and won a Best of Round Award.

Teammates Anita Krishnan, Tyler Stiggers and Margaret Lang helped Brady dominated the competition.

From Districts, students have to qualify to move to Regionals at Hudson High School on April 6th and then have the opportunity to move on to the State Tournament in Wooster. It is expected that at least three BMS 8th graders will qualify for the Regional competition.

Congratulations to all of the students for an amazing showing at the 2013 Power of the Pen District Tournament!

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