DETROIT — The Skillman Foundation and Good Schools Resource Center at Marygrove College have named nine local students the winners of its first Good Schools Poetry Contest.
The Michigan First Credit Union sponsored competition is part of The Skillman Foundation's seven-year, multi-million dollar education initiative, Good Schools: Making the Grade, which identifies nine indicators of student and school success and invites all Detroit schools to apply for funding and technical assistance to maintain or attain these standards.
The poetry contest was open to K-12 students attending any of the 145 public, charter, private or parochial schools in Detroit that have been named Good Schools during the first three years of the initiative. The topic was: Why my school is a good school. More than 1,000 entries were submitted. First, second and third place winners were chosen in each of three grade levels–elementary (K-5), middle school (6-8) and high school (9-12). The winning students and their prizes are as follows: Bates Academy fourth-grader Bryce Stallworth took first place honors and a $300 gift card, with YMCA Service Learning Academy fifth-grader Erica Cannon and Charles H. Wright Academy first-grader Brandon Hull coming in second and third place, receiving $200 and $100 gift cards respectively.
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Middle-school winners included Gesu Catholic School seventh-grader Najah Johnson, Golightly Educational Center eighth-grader J'La Williams and Gesu Catholic School seventh-grader Shabaka DaaJa-Ra, who ranked first, second and third with $500, $300 and $150, respectively.
Taking first, second and third place honors in the high school category were Renaissance High School senior Michael Varano, Communication and Media Arts senior Phillip Hall, and Renaissance High School senior Margaret Clements. High school winners respectively received $750, $500, and $300 gift card prizes.
Marygrove College English faculty judged the students' poems on creativity, originality, content, title appropriateness, style and mechanics, use of language and voice authenticity.
Michigan First CU presented the gift cards and award certificates to the poetry contest winners and plaques to the winning students' schools.
"This is our second year sponsoring a Good Schools: Making the Grade contest, and we're very proud to be a part of this important initiative," said Michigan First President /CEO Michael D. Poulos. "Michigan First has always been committed to the education and development of Detroit youth."
The Skillman Foundation's Good Schools: Making the Grade initiative identifies, recognizes and rewards Good Schools in Detroit. During the first three years of the initiative, The Skillman Foundation awarded more than $5.5 million in Good Schools grants to nearly 150 Detroit schools.
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