On Thursday, January 28, ten students from the girls division advancing from their respective class level competitions each prepared two poems to recite during the school level Poetry Out Loud competition. Like many events held in the past year, the school and competition judges convened digitally on Zoom.

Poetry Out Loud is a nationwide competition of poetry recitation for high school students who select poems from an online collection of poems compiled on the Poetry Out Loud website and perform them, learning public speaking skills through expression of poetry. Although students were separated by screens, the synergy of their passionate and powerful recitation and the enthusiasm of the on-campus audience created an amazing event and atmosphere for all attendees.

Among this year’s ten contestants – Moniques Nguyen (Class of 2021), Sola Long (Class of 2021), Rachel Blythe (Class of 2022), Heidi Blythe (Class of 2022), Kaitlin Harness (Class of 2022), Nina Xie (Class of 2022), Abigail Gong (Class of 2023), Amy Liu (Class of 2023), Veronica Tee (Class of 2023), and Tessa Jahnke (Class of 2024) – Heidi Blythe and Amy Liu will be advancing to the county level competition in the following weeks.

Congratulations to Heidi and Amy, as well as all of the students who participated in the competition! Special thanks to the competition judges, Ms. Jane Applebee, Ms. Jackie Farley, and Ms. Ashley Huynh for your work!