Congratulations to our 2016 The Quill State Champions!

Congratulations to JN Fries Magnet Middle School of Concord and Hickory High School, our 2016 Quill State Champions!

Saturday, April 23 marked the 2016 State Final of The Quill, an on-demand writing competition for middle and high school students in North Carolina. The event was held at Northwood High School in Pittsboro, and saw students answering prompts in Argumentation, Problem/Solution, Narrative (middle school), Creative Writing (high school), Informative/Explanatory (middle school), and Literary Analysis (high school). Middle school students were asked to create a solution to the myriad problems of standardized testing, and to consider how World War II impacted national relations with disenfranchised groups like women, African Americans, and Japanese Americans. High school students wrote short stories that imagine their characters having been chosen by the International Allegiance for a New Home in the year 3000 to be one of the first members of a new colony on a planet in a distant galaxy. Others had to choose whether to argue for or against GMOs.

In addition to the 90-minute on-demand writing session, students heard Tommy Hays, lecturer at UNC Asheville and author of the acclaimed What I Came To Tell You, speak about his early writing, the importance of place in fiction writing, and his latest novel.

The following are our topped ranked schools and individual winners in each event:

High school

1-Hickory High School

2- Brunswick Early College High School (State Runner-Up)

3- Northwood High School (State Second Runner-Up)

4- Northwest Guilford High School

5- High Point Central High School

Argumentation State Champion: Ryan Holmes of Atkins A&T High School, Winston-Salem

Creative Writing State Champion: Jordan Pollard of Northwood High School

Literary Analysis State Champion: Sophie Rice of Hickory High School

Problem/Solution State Champion: Mishaela Robison of Hickory High School

Middle School

1- JN Fries Magnet Middle School

2- Mount Mourne School of Mooresville (State Runner-Up)

3- Rogers-Herr Middle School of Durham (State Second Runner-Up)

4- Falls Lake Academy of Granville County

5- Lakeshore Middle School of Mooresville

Argumentation State Champion: Krithika Senthil of JN Fries

Narrative State Champion: Paige Cook of Mount Mourne

Informative/Explanatory State Champion: Brice Biehl of JN Fries

Problem/Solution State Champion: Nidhi Dhupati of Mount Mourne

Congratulations to all participating schools and students for a wonderful job!