Midlands State Winners Announced
Jan 18, 2012
National Career Development Association’s 46th Annual Poetry and Poster Contest
Four Midlands students have been named state winners in the National Career Development Association’s 46th Annual Poetry and Poster Contest. A total of 36 South Carolina public school students and 13 adult educators were selected from more than 11,000 entries statewide and have now moved on to compete in the national level. National winners will be announced in April. Congratulations to the following Midlands state winners:
Paige Ruder, Rocky Creek Elementary
3rd Place, Intermediate Division Poetry
Ainsley Smith, Blythewood Middle
3rd Place, Middle Division Poetry
Natalie Palumbo, Lexington Technology Center
1st Place, Senior Division Poster Category 2
Morgan Cato, Lexington Technology Center
2nd Place, Senior Division Poster Category 2
Each state winner will receive a print and art calendar from artist Jim Harrison of Denmark, South Carolina. Poetry winners will have their poems bound and printed. Special thanks to Sun Printing for their donation of 6500 posters featuring last year's state winners.
Conducted annually by the National Career Development Association (NCDA) to promote career awareness at all grade levels in schools across the nation, this year’s theme was “My Career Dreams.” “The high participation rate and remarkable quality of the entries demonstrates a great level of career awareness activity in South Carolina,” said Stacey Westberry, MEBA’s professional development director and state coordinator for this initiative.
Entries were judged according to grade-level divisions in three categories: poetry, traditional poster (Category 1), and posters utilizing multi-media applications (Category 2). All submissions were first judged at the regional level, with all first, second and third place regional winners being submitted for state-level judging. State winners were then submitted to the NCDA for the national competition. The work of Scot Hockman, education associate for the visual and performing arts at the State Department of Education, provided an important link to art teachers and creative writing instructors for the contest. “The quality and imagination of the poems and artwork is testimony of the good work going on in South Carolina schools,” emphasized Hockman.
“Our state can be proud of its career guidance programming to help create a dynamic workforce in South Carolina through creative career development programs like this competition,” said Dr. Ray Davis, education associate for career guidance at the State Department of Education. The statewide competition is sponsored by the Department’s Office of Career and Technology Education since 2002 in support of Perkins IV career guidance delivery.
MEBA would like to congratulate all of the Midlands regional winners. Listed by category, they are:
Intermediate Division Poster Category 1
First Place – Haley King, Round Top Elementary
Second Place – Vanessa Louis-Jean, Round Top Elementary
Third Place – Anaiah Thompson, Round Top Elementary
Middle Division Poster Category 1
First Place – Savannah Adegoroye, Dent Middle
Second Place – Justice Jones, Dent Middle
Third Place – Tristan Dwyer, Chapin Middle
Middle Division Poster Category 2
First Place – Rebecca Sebire, Dent Middle
Second Place – Evy Giles, Dent Middle
Third Place – India Patterson, Dent Middle
Senior Division Poster Category 2
First Place – Tyler Lambdin, Blythewood High
Second Place – Natalie Palumbo, Lexington Technology Center
Third Place – Morgan Cato, Lexington Technology Center
Intermediate Division Poetry
First Place – Audrey Boyette, New Providence Elementary
Second Place – Paige Ruder, Rocky Creek Elementary
Third Place – Claire Tarlton, Rocky Creek Elementary
Middle Division Poetry
First Place – Ainsley Smith, Blythewood Middle
Second Place – Kalyla Coghlan, Chapin Middle
Third Place – Myckenzie Horton, Blythewood Middle
Senior Division Poetry
First Place – Alyssa Allen, Blythewood High
Second Place – Alexis Stukes, Airport High
Third Place – Emily Pilot, Gilbert High
Adult Division Poetry
First Place – Emily Kimpton, Lexington One
For more information about the NCDA, please visit www.ncda.org.
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