On February 5, nine TGS students traveled to Faith Christian School of Summerville to compete in the SCISA State Literary Meet.  Thomas “Top” Lee, ninth-grader, won first place in essay writing event, an hour-long competition where he drew the topic “Is apologizing a form of weakness?”

“The topics last year were more factual,’ said Top, “I had to make a moral judgement this year.”

Other categories of competition at the Lit Meet include oral interpretation, extemporaneous speaking, storytelling, poetry and debate.  Adara tried her hand at oral interpretation, using an excerpt from The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.  “I was nervous, scared and excited, ” she said, “It was a lot of pressure.”  Grayson agreed, “I was excited and nervous too.”  Grayson interpreted Atticus Finch’s closing arguments from To Kill A Mockingbird.  Lochlyn performed a dialogue from Romeo and Juliet, “I was shaking the whole time but I felt good about my voice variation.  It was hard to do two voices,” she said.

Sara and Isabella did not have trouble with their essays, writing on prayer with teachers and the effects of technology on community.  Chris felt confident and Sam “felt like a boss” after their extemps but Ryleigh admitted she felt nervous and was shaking the whole time.

Head of School Dr. Gary Gates chaperoned the trip with Mrs. Crosby.  “The Lit Meet is a great opportunity for students to work on and show off their rhetorical skills–their power to persuade both orally and in writing.  All year, our Open Forum speakers have been stressing the importance of these skills on the job market.  Next year, we will take the entire student body.”  Thank you, Mrs. Crosby, for organizing our participation in this event and thanks to our student journalist, Wilfredo Urias, for covering the event.