Reciting original limericks was always a fun activity in Ezra Tetreault’s family. Little did he know that this skill would help him in winning a local section of the most recent National Chemistry Week Poetry Contest.
“My dad has always been really good at limericks,” Ezra, a sophomore at Western Wayne High School, said. “I ran my poem by him before bringing it to school.”
Ezra’s chemistry teacher Maria Masankay challenged her students to enter the American Chemical Society’s 2017 National Chemistry Week Poetry Contest. Much to his surprise, Ezra won the Susquehanna Valley Section of the contest.
“I had no expectations for winning,” he said. “The idea came to me quickly.”
Ezra explained that once he knew the topic for the poem was “rocks” he immediately started to think about writing a limerick because of his experiences with them in his family. He then started to think of a rhyme scheme and realized that just about all types of rocks end in the suffix “ite”.
After doing some quick research, he found that only three types of rocks do not end in that suffix. Therefore, he gave Basalt, Gabbro and Pumice a featured line in his poem. He accented his entry by including a drawing of a volcano and some of the rocks.
His poem has now made it to the national level of the contest. Ezra’s family and Masankay are invited to attend the ACS Awards Banquet in May where Ezra will be presented with a $50 check for being section winner.
This isn’t the first time Ezra has made it to a national level competition. Last year, he competed at FBLA nationals in public speaking as a freshman.
This year Ezra and a team of two other Western Wayne students Noelle Orehek and Trina Barcarola are working on a presentation to enter into the FBLA introduction to business event, which is a state-level competition. Ezra serves as the sophomore representative for FBLA. Also, he is sophomore class president.
When he is not writing poetry and FBLA presentations, Ezra plays football and track for Western Wayne.
Ezra loves all of the academic and extra-curricular experiences he is having at school so far and looks forward to participating in more activities. He also is greatly interested in politics and aspires to join the Coast Guard Academy and possibly work for NASA in the future.
“We are all very proud of Ezra’s efforts in all areas at Western Wayne,” Paul Gregorski, high school principal said. “We look forward to seeing if he advances in the NCW contest.”
From left: Ezra Tetreault, 2017 NCW Poetry Contest Section Winer for the Susquehanna Valley Section of the ACS, and Paul Gregorski, Western Wayne High School principal.
