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Winter Springs High Makes Strong Showing

Society for Technical Communication Honors Local Students for Excellence in Tech Writing

Over the past 8 years, Central Florida High School students have won 102 awards and $5,750 in cash prizes in STC writing competitions.

The Orlando Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) honored 24 Central Florida high school students for excellence in technical writing at its annual awards banquet February 24 at the Winter Park Civic Center.

The honorees, 19 of whom were tenth graders, were the authors of the top papers in the Eighth Annual Florida High School Technical Writing Competition, which drew 107 entries. Winter Springs High School dominated this year's competition, capturing 20 of the 24 awards.

Awards are offered in five categories: Distinguished ($250), Excellence ($150), Merit ($75), Achievement ($25), and Honorable Mention ($5 gift certificate). Judging was done by 18 STC members representing a cross section of the technical communicators in Central Florida and at the University of Central Florida. All entrants receive comprehensive feedback on their writing.

Repeating their 2003 performance as sophomores, Winter Springs juniors Eric First and Andrew Lai once again topped the field, each winning an Excellence award. First"s essay this year was entitled CAPTCHA: Read This!; Lai wrote on Telomerase: The Miracle Elixir for Cancer? First and Lai also finished 2-3 in last year's STC international high school technical writing competition, as Central Florida students took 4 of the top 5 places.

Asked if they would deliver a "three-peat" as seniors in 2005, Eric and Andrew said, "We"ll do our best!"

Two Winter Springs tenth graders, Andrew First (Eric's brother) and Robyn Tapley, captured Merit awards for their essays, Artificial Muscles: Revolutionary Motors and Power Generators and Humor and Healing: Laughter Really is the Best Medicine, respectively.

The top four papers have gone on for further judging in the international competition. Results will be released in May. Historically, Central Florida students have shown well at the next level, including last year's near sweep and a 1-3-5 finish in 2001.

In addition to the four Excellence and Merit awards, the local chapter presented seven Achievement awards and 13 Honorable Mentions.

Four Achievement awards were harvested by Winter Springs sophomores: Jennifer Lai (Andrew"s sister), Katherine Canon, Jason Kwong, and Scott Runda. The other three went to Deltona High School senior Lauren Pell – Volusia County"s first winner in the competition – Lake Brantley sophomore Stephanie Everett, and Apopka senior Christian Blackwelder, representing the Blue Darters' first trip to the winners' circle.

Winter Springs took 12 of the 13 Honorable Mentions, Lake Brantley the other. The recipients were sophomores Kirstie Dodd, Michael Dwyer, Jesse Huth, Caitlin Kirchner, Kelly Lenahan, Travis Pillow, Mary Kate Reischmann, Jonathan Ross, Ashton Sanders, and David Scott of Winter Springs; Lake Brantley sophomore Deborah Swerdlow; and the only ninth grade award winner, Jeremy Hsu of Winter Springs.

Faculty sponsors of the award winners included four Winter Springs instructors (Dr. Maureen Warner, Trent Daniel, Michele Ciccarello, and Debby Carli), Dr. Susan Behel of Lake Brantley, Cindy Boor of Deltona, and Kenneth Bowles of Apopka.

Over the 8-year life of the competition, Central Florida high school students have earned 102 awards and $5,750 in cash prizes from STC for their writing prowess. A complete listing of the award winners since the contest's inception in 1996, including the titles of their essays, is available at http://www.stc-orlando.org/education/highsch/allhsawards.asp.

The Society for Technical Communication is the world's largest professional organization in its field with over 20,000 members in 152 chapters worldwide. STC members work as technical writers, editors, illustrators, managers, educators, translators, and other communicators who make technical information understandable and available to those who need it. Information about STC can be found at its website at www.stc.org. Information about the Orlando Chapter is available on its website at www.stc.org.