Alumni News

Victoria Kerr participated in Power of the Pen as a student at the former Taft Middle School in Stark County and now coaches at Jackson Memorial Middle School.

Jackson's 8th graders placed first in the 2020 Power of the Pen Eastern Region tournament, and the 7th and 8th grades together placed third overall. Eighth grader Zoe Brewster earned district Best of the Best for a story entitled "Lonely."

Victoria says she loves working with her team, pictured below: "I get so much satisfaction of seeing the progress that my students make from the beginning of the year through the tournament season. It is always fun to see where their creativity leads them."

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Wyoming Middle School alum Jasmine Warga won a 2020 Newbery Honor for her third novel, Other Words from Home, about a young girl who must move from Syria to Cincinnati, Ohio. Amazon says the book is perfect for fans of our 2019 state tournament guest author Jason Reynolds, as well as Aisha Saeed.

In February, Jasmine visited her alma mater and held a Q&A lunch with the Wyoming Middle School Power of the Pen team, coached by Jenn Sauvey and Beth Toerner. You can follow Jasmine on Twitter @jasminewarga.

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Alumni, we would love to hear from you! Whatever your career or hobbies, Power of the Pen would like to know about your life now and how Power of the Pen influenced you.

Please tell us about yourself, and send us photos - either from your time as a Power of the Pen writer or from today!

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Your donation helps thousands of Ohio middle school students develop their creative voices. In the 2019-2020 season:

» About 2,700 students participated in 16 district and 8 regional tournaments;
» Nearly 12,000 pieces of writing were evaluated;
» More than 600 judges provided individual feedback on student writing;
» Countless volunteers helped keep tournaments running smoothly; and
» More than 70 stories were selected to be published in the 2020 Book of Winners.

Our supporters make it possible for Power of the Pen to encourage young writers to develop their talents!

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Join Our Tournaments

Volunteers make sure that Power of the Pen district and regional tournaments are a high-quality experience for everyone! You can help by:

» Serving as a judge to evaluate writing and provide feedback;
» Taking photos or videos;
» Sorting stories in the tab room.

If you never had a behind-the-scenes look at Power of the Pen as a student, now is your chance to see what it takes to make it all come together!

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