Bellwood girl makes state finals in poetry contest

By Jimmy Mincin, jmincin@altoonamirror.com
A keen memory can take you a long way.

Mikaela Hornberger, a sophomore at Bellwood-Antis High School, advanced to the final five overall in this year’s National Endowment for the Arts’ Poetry Out Loud poetry recitation state finals at the Governor’s Residence in Harrisburg.

At the state level, she competed against 12 others from schools across Pennsylvania and represented Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art.

“Going into this, I was like, ‘Maybe I have a chance,’ but after seeing and meeting the competition, I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know,’” the 16-year-old from Bellwood said. “I started to get a little nervous. I just knew they were all very good.”

The nationally sponsored contest involves students from across the country that memorize and recite a series of three poems from an anthology of poetry, according to a release on the competition. It uses a pyramid structure that begins at the classroom level.

Winners advance to a schoolwide competition, then to regional and state competition, and ultimately to the national finals in Washington, DC.

Evaluation criteria includes voice and articulation, physical presence, appropriateness of dramatization, evidence of understanding, level of difficulty, overall performance and accuracy.

Mikaela recited “Poetry” by Marianne Moore, “A Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and “Ode on Solitude” by Alexander Pope.

“The two accuracy judges take off a 1/2 point for missed or added words, then a separate panel watches for interpretation,” she said. “Once you finish that, they tally up the scores, and about 15 minutes later, the judges announce which competitors make it to finals. Once you get to finals, you go through the same process again.”

According to a release, the National Endowment of the Arts joined together with The Poetry Foundation in 2005 to create the contest to encourage the nation’s youth to learn about poetry through memorization and recitation.

The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts implemented the event through its Arts in Education partnership with the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Parent Teacher Association.

Poetry Out Loud awards $50,000 in scholarships and school stipends at the national finals, with at least one $20,000 college scholarship for the national champion. Thirteen regional contests were held across Pennsylvania to determine the 13 state finalists.

This year, 7,000 students in 90 Pennsylvania schools participated. Pennsylvania ranked second only to California in the number of school districts that competed, according to Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Executive Director Philip Horn.

Mikaela said her favorite part of the event was getting to meet new people.

‘‘The other competitors were from all over Pennsylvania, and it was just really cool to talk to them,’’ she said. “I was the fisrt person from my school to ever do this, so I had no idea what to expect. I was just really glad to make it that far.

She received a special congratulations from Governor Rendell during the awards ceremony.

“We always hear stories about him in civics class, so getting to meet him was really cool,” she said.

Mirror staff writer Jimmy Mincin is at 946-7460.