{"id":65746,"date":"2026-05-16T20:50:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T00:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=65746"},"modified":"2026-05-16T20:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T00:50:11","slug":"50th-annual-polk-county-schools-poetry-contest-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/05\/16\/50th-annual-polk-county-schools-poetry-contest-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"50th Annual Polk County Schools Poetry Contest Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 50th Annual Polk County Schools Poetry Contest Awards<\/strong> ceremony took place on May 11, 2026, at Branscomb Auditorium on the Florida Southern College campus.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n

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The milestone event celebrated middle and high school students, their families, and English teachers while marking exactly half a century of the district’s annual poetry publication.<\/sup> This year’s double-sided dual anthology featured original works from 254 student poets across grades 6 through 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major Award Winners<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • The Mary Mayberry Award for Excellence in Poetry (Middle School Overall):<\/strong> Received by Isabel Kramer<\/strong>, a 6th grader at Rochelle School of the Arts (taught by Kimberly Nolen). Her poem, “The Tour Guide’s Lie,”<\/em> inspired the title of the middle school anthology edition: \u201cAmerica is a Beautiful, Giant Kite.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Robert J. Fisher Award (High School Overall):<\/strong> Received by Isaiah Elias<\/strong>, a 9th grader at George Jenkins High School (taught by Lisa Dalton). His poem, “Limits to Muddy Repetition,”<\/em> provided the high school anthology title: \u201cWe Choose Knowledge, Love, A Voice.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
    \n\n\n\n

    First-Place Winners by Grade Level<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    Grade<\/th>Student Poet<\/th>School \/ Program<\/th>Teacher<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
    12th Grade<\/strong><\/td>Celina Madhavath<\/td>Winter Haven High School (Cambridge)<\/td>Stacey Schubele<\/td><\/tr>
    11th Grade<\/strong><\/td>Tejwant Chauhan<\/td>George Jenkins High School<\/td>Michele Barr<\/td><\/tr>
    10th Grade<\/strong><\/td>Olivia Bisesi<\/td>Winter Haven High School (Cambridge)<\/td>Michaela Barney<\/td><\/tr>
    9th Grade<\/strong><\/td>Narenkarthik Ssramen<\/td>International Baccalaureate at Bartow High<\/td>Lindsey Hanger<\/td><\/tr>
    8th Grade<\/strong><\/td>Alexandra Peterson<\/td>Lawton Chiles Middle Academy<\/td>Amy Eide<\/td><\/tr>
    7th Grade<\/strong><\/td>Anyeli Ramirez-Lomitas<\/td>Rosabelle W. Blake Academy<\/td>Britney Whalen<\/td><\/tr>
    6th Grade<\/strong><\/td>Hadley Faulkner<\/td>Rochelle School of the Arts<\/td>Kimberly Nolen<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The 50th Annual Polk County Schools Poetry Contest Awards ceremony took place on May 11, 2026, at Branscomb Auditorium on the Florida Southern College campus. The milestone event celebrated middle… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"26","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDVcL0dlbWluaV9HZW5lcmF0ZWRfSW1hZ2VfZHh2bnk2ZHh2bnk2ZHh2bi53ZWJwP2ZpdD0xMDI0JTJDNTU5JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiNTB0aCBBbm51YWwgUG9sayBDb3VudHkgU2Nob29scyBQb2V0cnkgQ29udGVzdCBBd2FyZHMiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.VTR7RXS7rU3XZdO_ddDf96q-n5ulLAhUXTcuJULkA74MQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA1XC9HZW1pbmlfR2VuZXJhdGVkX0ltYWdlX2R4dm55NmR4dm55NmR4dm4tMTAyNHg1NTkud2VicCIsInR4dCI6IjUwdGggQW5udWFsIFBvbGsgQ291bnR5IFNjaG9vbHMgUG9ldHJ5IENvbnRlc3QgQXdhcmRzIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.Z_c4bERK0-IQTlP1_a129nrgCwwq-a4IjLhjx7fgZjEMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[14627],"class_list":["post-65746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-schools","tag-50th-annual-polk-county-schools-poetry-contest-awards"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65749,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65746\/revisions\/65749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}