PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y., March 20 /PRNewswire/ — An eighth-grader from Osceola yesterday won the Wisconsin State Championship in the fifth annual Reader’s Digest National Word Power Challenge, America’s premier vocabulary competition. Mary Willis, a student at Osceola Middle School, will join the top winners from all 50 states to battle for the national title and $50,000 in college scholarships at the 2007 National Championship in Orlando, Florida, May 14-15.
“In a word, this student’s achievement is superlative,” said Kathleen Bordelon, executive director of the Reader’s Digest National Word Power Challenge. “A strong vocabulary and love of reading is vital to success in life, and this word champion is off to a great start.”
In contrast to a spelling bee that quizzes students on the spelling of words, the National Word Power Challenge tests students’ understanding of what words mean. 13-year-old Mary Willis, whose favorite word is onomatopoeia, spends an average of 15 hours reading every week. She began reading at the age of four and finished over 100 books last year. She counts “Squire” by Tamora Pierce as her favorite.
More than two million students and thousands of schools have participated in the Reader’s Digest National Word Power Challenge, an in school skill building program. Top grade level winners advanced to the state competition and State champions and their teacher escorts receive an all-expense-paid trip to the National Championship at the Renaissance Orlando Resort at SeaWorld. A television special based on the national event will be broadcast on NBC stations this summer, hosted by quizmaster Al Roker of NBC’s “Today Show.”
Based on the popular “Word Power” column in Reader’s Digest Magazine, the most widely read magazine in the world, the Reader’s Digest National Word Power Challenge is an educational outreach program of Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. The Reader’s Digest National Word Power Challenge is sponsored nationally by Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats. Additional support is provided by BIC stationery products.
For more information, please visit http://www.wordpowerchallenge.com/.
