Poetry Out Loud! On Thursday, January 9, the Shaker English Council hosted the 20th annual Poetry Out Loud contest after school. Eight students competed in total. Abeesha Duaa, Anna Hopwood, Sakthi Jagannath, Pavithra Jayakumar, Sana Khan, Kallista Latina, Jacob Perea and Helen Powell each memorized and recited two poems for the competition. They were judged by three members of the English Department (Brittany Gonzalez, Katie Leach and Siobhan Matrose) as well as Shaker alumna Kamellia Barrett.
In the end, Sana Khan was named the winner and Abeesha Duaa was the runner up. Both will head to the New York Semifinal competition at HVCC on January 31 at 6pm.
20 years ago, SHS was one of only six school in NYS to participate. Now, there are more than 250 schools participating statewide and more than 17,000 across the country. In the past 20 years, Shaker students have represented New York at the National Finals twice. Congratulations to all!