The gift of poetry has long been appreciated in the educational community. The ability to express one’s feelings and emotions in the form of poetry is something special. For that reason poetry contests for high school students that are determined to continue their educational opportunities in an accredited college or university are becoming more available. With poetry so popular these days more and more of these high school poetry contests are surfacing and there are poetry scholarships that can be won as well which really are the same thing – if you use the awards to pay for your education. Let’s talk about a few of the poetry contests for high school students that are available.
Poetry Out Loud Scholarship Contest
This scholarship was designed to encourage the youth of the nation to experience the greatness that is poetry. By allowing the student to explore, memorize, and perform poetry they can promote the art in both community and classroom. The Poetry Foundation formed an alliance with the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as state arts agencies to form classroom poetry competition all across the nation. Class competes against class until a winner for the school is chosen. Then schools compete against schools, regions against regions, and finally state against state.
March is the month for state finals and April for National finals. The winner of the state competition gets $200 and $500 to be used to purchase library books on poetry. In addition, the state winner gets a trip to Washington, DC for them and their adult chaperone for the National Finals. Those who come in second place get $100 and $200 for the library poetry books. The real money comes in if you win the National Finals. The National Champion receives $20,000. The runner up gets $10,000. The third place winner gets $5,000. Those chosen 4th through 12th will receive $1,000 and the schools of top twelve will get $500 each. This is a long journey but is well worth pursuing if you like poetry for high school students contests.
The Claremont Review Poetry Contest
Poetry contests for high school students come in many different styles and varieties. The Claremont Review Poetry Contest is held annually for students between the ages of 13 and 19. This contest is sponsored by the Claremont Review in Canada. For $20 you can submit 3 of your favorite poems. The deadline for entries related to this contest is March 15th, 2011. First prize in this annual contest is $500. The runner up receives $300 and the third place winner receives $200. You won’t get rich off this poetry contest for high school students but you will get published in the Claremont Review’s Fall issue if you are one of the winners and to top it off you will receive a copy of it as well. In addition, winning poems will be posted on abebooks.com for all to see. That kind of exposure is priceless. As a young writer you want to get your writing out there for all to see. If you are looking for an outlet to show off your ability then this may be the contest for you.
Annual High School Poetry Contest
This poetry contest for high school students is sponsored by Gannon University in Pennsylvania and is available for high school students that are Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, or Seniors. The first prize for this contest is $100 and you also receive a book that has been autographed by Cornelius Eady. They runner up gets $75 and an autographed book, and the third place winner gets $50 and an autographed book. The deadline for this contest is February 1st. Once again you are allowed to enter 3 of your poems. This high school poetry contest for students is popular because the winners get the autographed book by the African American poet Cornelius Eady.
These high school student poetry contests capture the imagination of our youth and allow them to share their invaluable insight with the world on the competitive stage. That makes these poetry contests for high school students invaluable as well and are just as good as as poetry scholarships contest to help pay for school.
High School junior Scholarships
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