Budding authors win state honors
From dinosaurs to Shakespeare, the creativity of students at Rome City Schools has been acknowledged by the Young Georgia Authors Association as several of them were awarded first and second place in competition.
All students at RCS are given the opportunity to submit their work.
Ashley Romo, a senior at Rome High School, won first place for her Laws of Life essay titled “Life’s Focus.” “While we were working on our pieces, we were supposed to incorporate a meaningful quote into our story, so the quote that I chose allowed me to write about the time I got my first camera. This was the moment that really influenced my life, as far as what I wanted to do when I graduate high school and college, and just how I wanted to see the world in a different perspective when taking pictures.”
Anna Garrett, an eighthgrader at Rome Middle School, won first place for her short story titled “Forbidden.” “My story is reflective of the rules and temptations in life. We had to base the story around a Shakespeare play, so I chose to base it off of the forbidden love between Romeo and Juliet. I’ve never reflected back to the rules I follow on a day to day basis, but it was fun to look back and truly see the things I am supposed to do verses the things that I want to do,” Garrett explained.
At West End Elementary, the YGA assignment was to pick an activist to write about, and sixth-grader John Glick wrote about Martin Luther King Jr.
Glick won first place at West End with his story titled “Martin Luther King Jr.” which talked about an aspect of King’s life that not many people are familiar with. “Everyone writes about Martin Luther King Jr. So, I began my piece with an anecdote to introduce the reader at the beginning of the story of MLK Jr. While buying shoes with his father, he was discriminated against. I used this experience to spark the reader’s interest,” stated Glick.
Alyssa Austin, firstplace winner for the third grade at West Central Elementary with her story titled “Ruby and the Island,” said that her favorite part of the writing process was “coming up with the adventure, and the story at its core.”
Helen Coronado-Nolasco, a first-grader at Elm Street Elementary School, won first place in the Young Georgia Authors contest with her story, “Lucy and Star’s Magical Adventure.” Coronado-Nolasco’s favorite part of writing was when the characters saved the princess. “I would love to become a writer when I grow up,” she said.
Jonathan Ingram Jr., a kindergartner at North Heights Elementary, won first place with his “Jonathan’s Dinosaur Story.”
“When I was starting to write my story, I really wanted to write about something I liked. I love dinosaurs, and Mrs. Farrar helped me by looking up the different dinosaurs on her computer,” said Ingram.
Emerson Laipple, a fourth grader East Central Elementary School, also secured a first place finish with her poem, “A Winter’s Midnight.”
“My story is all about personifying midnight during winter. My favorite part of the writing process was using personification and learning how to write a poem more effectively.”
All Rome City School students that have won a Young Georgia Authors award will be recognized at the Rome Board of Education meeting on Tuesday.