Jan. 18, 2007 – Fourth grader De-Vaughn Taylor, fifth grader Jamari Venzen, and sixth grader Keniella Cole were named champions of the Grade-level Championship of the Reader's Digest National Word Power Challenge. All of them attend the Ricardo Richards Elementary School.
The challenge is a vocabulary contest designed for schools nationwide for grades four through eight. English-speaking students in eligible grades who have not reached their 16th birthdays by the time of the school-level competition may participate.
The Grade-level Championship, at which students answered oral and written questions challenging their vocabulary skills, completes the local school component of the annual challenge. Jamari Venzen also tied last year for state top scorer in the fourth grade class.
Thousands of schools across the United States participated and will now take a qualifying test to determine top scorers among fourth and fifth graders in the state who will receive recognition and awards. The top 100 scorers in sixth, seventh and eighth grade will be invited to compete on March 19, for the title of state champion.
Reader's Digest will provide all-expense-paid trips for state champions and their respective teacher/escorts to participate in the national championship. The first-place national winner will receive a $25,000 college scholarship. The second and third place winners will receive $15,000 and $10,000 college scholarships, respectively.