TOLEDO—Six juniors at Toledo Central Catholic High School recently received awards in the Toledo Museum of Art’s first Ekphrastic Poetry Showcase Contest.

More than 200 students from seven schools entered the high school category of the contest, which encourages writing in response to art. Dr. Joel Lipman, Poet Laureate of Toledo and professor of art and English at the University of Toledo, judged the contest entries.
 
First prize went to Rene Sarra, second prize was awarded to Thomas Dysard and Lauren Eckles and third prize was awarded to Nicholas Schetter and Chloe Rose. Kane Anderson received honorable mention. Each winner receives a certificate, a museum membership and a cash award to be presented at a reception and celebration July 10 at the Toledo Museum of Art.

Twenty-six students from Central Catholic were also among more than 135,000 students from the United States and 11 other countries who took the 2009 National Latin Exam.

Junior Thomas Dysard earned a gold medal summa cum laude award for scoring a 37 out of 40 on the Latin I exam. The national average for that test is 28.

Four other students from Central Catholic earned a certificate for scoring above the national average of 31 on the Introduction to Latin exam, including junior Chloe Rose, sophomore Querino Espino and freshmen Derek Smith and Mitch Wise.