DP
Drake Palmer
  • Piedmont, CA

Drake Palmer Named Winner of National Writing Contest

2013 Jul 26

Four students have been named winners in RIT's SpiRIT Writing Contest for deaf or hard-of-hearing high school students, sponsored by Rochester Institute of Technology's National Technical Institute for the Deaf.

Dozens of entries, which included a short writing sample and an essay or report, were received from across the country.

The winners had the option of a $500 prize or a scholarship and travel expenses to RIT's Explore Your Future career exploration camp on the Rochester, N.Y. campus. EYF is a six-day summer program that offers deaf and hard-of-hearing students opportunities to sample different careers and college life.

The winners are:

  • Drake Palmer, who is entering the 11th grade at Piedmont High School in Piedmont, Calif. He wrote about "The Hidden World of the Hard of Hearing" and wondered whether having a hearing loss affects a person's social ability.
  • Sara Rukeyser, who is entering the 11th grade at Mamaroneck High School, Mamaroneck, N.Y. She wrote about psychiatrist Robert Coles' study of the moral, political and spiritual aspects of children's minds.
  • Stephanie Wilson, who is entering the 12th grade at Desert Mountain High School, Scottsdale, Ariz. She wrote about Othello and his worships of Desdemona with metaphors of pure snow, alabaster light and roses, his hateful jealousy and misguided sense of justice.
  • Ashley Kingston, who is entering the 12th grade at The Learning Center for the Deaf in Framingham, Mass. She wrote a historical profile about deaf poet Laura Redden Searing, who "had a lot of power; however, she didn't use her voice, she used words."