Rockville Student Claims $10,000 Prize In National Poetry Contest

A student from Richard Montgomery High School claimed a $10,000 prize for being runner-up in the Poetry Out Loud National Finals.

Blessed Sheriff, a sophomore and a resident of Gaithersburg, was the Maryland State Poetry Out Loud Champion, according to an announcement.

Sheriff was one of nine finalists, selected from a pool of 53 students representing every state, Washington, DC, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands at the national finals.

Hosted at George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium on Tuesday, Sherriff fell just short of the $20,000 grand prize for the poetry recitation contest.

The event matches matches skills in reciting classic and contemporary poetry from Shakespeare to Brenda Cárdenas, according to the release.

The Poetry Out Loud National Finals is the culmination of a pyramid-structure competition that began last September among schools across the country. The nationwide poetry education program and competition involved more than 375,000 students and some 2,000 high schools across the country.

Poetry Out Loud is sponsored by the National Arts Endowment and the Poetry Foundation.