Creative Writing Contests & Competitions

Contests and Competitions

Creative writing students have the opportunity to enter competitions at the local, state, and national levels. Many of our student teams have won or placed locally in their categories for contests including: the National Poetry Out Loud competition, State and National Directing Change video contests related to mental health, and the California Student Media Festival. Two of our winning student videos was chosen by Angels Baseball for their public service announcement about mental health and played on television during every home game during that season!

VIDEO CONTESTS

La Quinta High School Creative Writing student teams enter video contests as part of their unit on playwriting and screenwriting. In these student video contests, storyboards are created, scripts are written, and video are directed, filmed, and edited by student teams. There is the possibility for cash prizes to both the program and directly to student winners.

Directing Change

Directing Change is part of statewide efforts to prevent suicide, reduce stigma and discrimination related to mental illness, and to promote the mental health and wellness of students. These initiatives are funded by counties through the Mental Health Services Act (Prop 63) and administered by the California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA), an organization of county governments working to improve mental health outcomes for individuals, families and communities.

For more information, visit: www.directingchangeca.org

California Student Media Festival

Now in its 56th year, the California Student Media Festival is our nation’s oldest student media festival. Over the past twenty-five years, the California Student Media Festival has awarded more than $153,000 to California Schools. It has expanded to include the work of more than 6,000 student contestants from schools across the state. The Festival exists to celebrate the amazing media and multimedia projects produced by California’s students and teachers — rewarding and acknowledging their successful classroom work at an awards event in spring every year.

For more information, visit: http://csmfestival.weebly.com/about.htm

2020 Video Contest Winners!

“Audience of One” (Selected by Angels Baseball to air on television)

First Place in California Directing Change Contest in the Animated Short Category ($1000 to students & award trophy to each)
Winner in both Artistic Nonfiction High School AND the Global One Special Award categories in 54th Annual California Student Media Festival ($750 to school Creative Writing program; 2 plaques for the school)
First Place in National AAS Directing Change Contest in the Animated Short Category ($1000 in Amazon gift cards split among all students)

Orange County / La Quinta High School Creative Writing

Filmmakers: Keanu Hua, Brian Ly, Kayla Nguyen and Alexa Wright

Advisor: Amanda LaPera

View & Download

“Culture Doesn’t Define Me”

Honorable Mention in the Nationwide AAS Directing Change contest, Suicide Prevention Category
Honorable Mention in the California Directing Change contest in “Through the Lens of Culture” category (certificates to students)
Fifth place in the GGUSD Choose Wellness Campaign Video Contest: La Quinta NAMI Club’s video (GGUSD version)

Orange County / La Quinta HS NAMI On Campus

Filmmakers: Karen Nguyen, Kathleen Nguyen, Michelle Lee, Jane Le, Titania Le , Gina Ngo, Cindy Pham, Kelsy Hua and Andrea Tran

Advisor: Amanda LaPera

Language: English and Vietnamese with English subtitles

A student is confronted about her grades by her mom and feels the cultural pressure of needing to be perfect and keeping her mental health struggles to herself. She realizes she is not alone and holds up the green ribbon as she encourages viewers to reach out.

View & Download (Directing Change version)

“Stay”

Team Pick in California Directing Change Contest in Suicide Prevention Category (1 award trophy)
4th Place in the Nationwide AAS Directing Change contest, Suicide Prevention Category ($250 in Amazon gift cards split among all students)

Orange County / La Quinta High School Creative Writing

Filmmakers: Benson Truong, Kimbill Ly, Kenneth Tran, Terry Nguyen, Cattu Do and Johnathan Phan

Advisor: Amanda LaPera

View & Download

“Reach Out”

Honorable Mention in the California Direction Change Contest in Suicide Prevention Category (certificates sent to students)

Orange County / La Quinta High School Creative Writing

Filmmakers: Michelle Nguyen, Kady Tran, Katherine Pham, Vy Ngo and Julie Tran

Advisor: Amanda LaPera

View & Download

POETRY CONTESTS

Poetry Out Loud

Every year, LQHS Creative Writing students get the opportunity to compete in the National Poetry Out Loud competition. The school winner moves on the county level round to compete for a place in the California state competition, and hopefully on to the national round.

What is Poetry Out Loud?

A partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Foundation, and the state and jurisdictional arts agencies, Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering free educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition to high schools across the country.

Students need to choose and memorize two poems from the POL database at poetryoutloud.org. There, students can find recitation tips as well as the scoring rubric. One poem must be 25 lines or fewer and written pre-20th century. Competitors will recite both poems from memory. Winners will advance to the Orange County level where they will compete for a spot in the California State Poetry Out Loud competition, in hopes of winning at the national level. In total, Poetry Out Loud will award more than $100,000 to state- and national-level winners and their schools in 2022.

How Do Students Sign Up?

Check back in the fall 2022 for the next open application. Auditions will be held after school on TBD.

2022 Poetry Contest Finalist!

GGUSD Student Earns Top Spot in OC Poetry Out Loud Competition!

La Quinta High School Student Emily Dang earned second place in the county level of the National 2022 Poetry Out Loud competition which had more than 500 students participating. This week, Marcus Omari from Poetic Reform Party and Elizabeth AB Miller, the Program manager for Arts Orange County visited La Quinta to present Emily with an award in recognition of her second-place win.

Due to her excellent performance in the Poetry Out Loud competition and the OC Poetry Out Loud Showcase and Open Mic on February 12th, Emily was selected to be the single student to delivery her poem at the Orange County Music and Arts Administrators Awards Ceremony at the Segerstrom Center on May 17.

Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering free educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition for high school students across the country. This program helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about literary history and contemporary life.

Students had several weeks to memorize two poems from the National Poetry Out Loud anthology, record those poems and submit them to the county’s panel of judges. Submissions were scored on physical presence, voice and articulation, dramatic appropriateness, evidence of understanding, overall performance and accuracy.

2022 Poetry Out Loud Competition Finalist