Columbus student wins national poetry competition

A Columbus North High School student has been chosen as the 2023 Poetry Out Loud National Champion.

According to the Bartholomew Consolidated Schools, junior Sreepadaarchana Munjuluri was the winner of the event held in Washington DC last week. The Poetry Out loud program, organized by National Endowment for the Arts and Poetry Foundation, encourages youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation. The program is in its 18th year.

Munjuluri recited poems by Emily Jungmin Yoon, Emma Lazarus, and Garrett Hongo. Munjuluri will receive a prize of $20,000. She participated through the Indiana Humanities organization.

Munjuluri said she loves that students are sharing a part of their identity through the poems. She said her choices shared facets of what she believes in and who she is.

Photo: Sreepadaarchana Munjuluri competes at the national Poetry Out Loud competition. Photo by James Kegley for the National Endowment for the Arts.