Merced County Poetry Out Loud Winner Revealed

Starr Schwartz, a student from Merced County Scholars Charter School, earned first place at the 2024 Merced County Poetry Out Loud competition, held Jun. 27 at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center.

Schwartz received the highest score of the competition and competed against three other students: Elsa Van Dyke from Merced High School, Esteban Castaneda from Merced High School and Ilias Benomar from El Capitan High School. Van Dyke was the runner up in the competition.

Poetry Out Loud — a collaborative initiative between Merced County Arts Council and the Merced County Office of Education — is a national arts education program that offers free online educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition for high school students across the country.

The local competition was virtual for several years and accepted video submission in lieu of in-person performances until this year.

Students were asked to select and perform poems from the official Poetry Out Loud poem bank and participated in three rounds of recitation for a panel of judges. Students recited works from Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost and many others.

Schwartz will now move on to represent Merced County in the California State Competition this March in Sacramento.