Thirty-three 7th and 8th grade students from eleven local schools competed in the countywide Writing Tournament, held in the Stone Hall at the Miners Foundry, on January 8, 2025.

Writing Tournament Category Winners L-R: Isa Stanger, Taeya Vernon, Lena Von Rudden, Elise Sheppard, Amy Montano-Gil, Dylan Prouty
Writing Tournament Category Winners L-R: Isa Stanger, Taeya Vernon, Lena Von Rudden, Elise Sheppard, Amy Montano-Gil, Dylan Prouty

The students were judged on three styles of writing:

  1. Informative Writing: Guest speaker, Daniel Sederquist, from Stanford Youth Solutions gave a presentation about California’s foster care system. Following the speech, students were asked to write an essay about the presentation.
  • Creative Writing: Students wrote stories in response to the prompt: “Wait. Say that again?”
  • Persuasive Letter Writing: Students were asked to write a letter to their principal about whether or not parents should bribe their kids for good grades.

Tournament Coordinator, Shannon Rashby, said she was surprised by the persuasive letter responses. While a few students argued for bribing kids to get good grades, saying it adds an extra incentive that helps students motivate to work harder, an overwhelming majority of them wrote against bribing students for good grades. The reasons varied from ethics to extra pressure put on students to concerns about greed. “Many students stressed the importance of developing one’s own intrinsic motivation,” said Rashby.

Winners:

Overall winners for highest collective score from 3 written assignments:

7th Grade: Isa Stanger, Yuba River Charter 8th Grade: Amy Montano-Gil, Seven Hills

Writing Tournament Overall Winners, L-R: Isa Stanger and Amy Montano-Gil
Writing Tournament Overall Winners, L-R: Isa Stanger and Amy Montano-Gil

Informative Writing Winners:

7th Grade:

1st Place: Dylan Prouty, Seven Hills School 2nd Place: Isa Stanger, Yuba River Charter 3rd Place: Grace Hughes, Clear Creek

4th Place: Violet Jackson, Union Hill

5th Place: Elias Audelo, Grass Valley Charter

8th Grade:

1st Place: Lena Von Ruden, Magnolia

2nd Place: Amy Montano-Gil, Seven Hills 3rd Place: Vivienne Karwowski, Seven Hills 4th Place: Ava Moyer, Clear Creek

5th Place: Maggie Furlong, Nevada City School of the Arts

Creative Writing Winners:

7th Grade:

1st Place: Taeya Vernon, Yuba River Charter 2nd Place: Isa Stanger, Yuba River Charter

3rd Place: Mira Zakon, Nevada City School of the Arts 4th Place: Owen Alonzo, Seven Hills

5th Place (tie): Kellen Beahm, Magnolia

5th Place (tie): Georgie Pearson, Clear Creek

8th Grade:

1st Place: Elise Shepard, Arete

2nd Place: Sophia Alonso, Magnolia

3rd Place: Spencer Umphress, Yuba River Charter 4th Place: Lena Von Ruden, Magnolia

5th Place: Amy Montano-Gil, Seven Hills

Persuasive Letter Writing Winners:

7th Grade:

1st Place: Isa Stanger, Yuba River Charter 2nd Place: Violet Jackson, Union Hill

3rd Place: Owen Alonzo, Seven Hills

4th Place: Georgie Pearson, Clear Creek

5th Place: Mira Zakon, Nevada City School of the Arts

8th Grade:

1st Place: Amy Montano-Gil, Seven Hills 2nd Place: Vivienne Karwowski, Seven Hills 3rd Place: Sophia Alonso, Magnolia

4th Place: Pixie Gump, Nevada City School of the Arts 5th Place: Lena Von Ruden, Magnolia Congratulations to all participants and thank you to all the teachers and parents for their support and encouragement!