Skylar Fondren, shown here in 2022 was one of three students in NTCC History to win both a Britt Award for a poster presentation at the Great Plains Honors Council, and a $400 Award for ranking first in an NTCC McGraw Hill Poster Contest. Fondren leveraged attainments like these for a Coca Cola Gold Award on the national level in 2023.
By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director
The Sixteenth Annual McGraw-Hill Poster Contest is set for Friday, May 10th at 9:30 a.m. in the foyer of the Whatley Center for the Performing Arts at Northeast Texas Community College. This contest recognizes and rewards creative student scholarship in Northeast Texas. Area high school seniors, college and university students are welcome to compete. Prizes range from $100 for fourth place to $400 for first place. Community judges will determine a project’s contribution to scholarship, the persuasiveness of its author, and the quality of the overall presentation. The student posters must reflect new and original research, performed in this past year of 2023-24.
This year’s event is beholden again to Beverly Kelley of Mount Vernon, a major patron of many initiatives of Honors Northeast.
The scholars of Honors Northeast will compete. Other students wishing to enter the contest should contact their professor to communicate with the honors director, Dr. Andrew Yox or send an abstract of 100 words to ayox@ntcc.edu explaining why their project represents an original work of scholarship by noon, 9 May. Yox can also offer advice and help regarding posters and protocol for the one-hour contest. Contestants on10 May will set up before 9:30 AM in the Whatley Foyer, and judges will circulate among the contestants from 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM. The winners will be announced at 11 a.m. in the Whatley Foyer on 10 May, soon after the judging.
NTCC Presidential Scholars, the top tier of Honors Northeast, have dominated the contest with two exceptions. In 2021, Brian Ramirez, an Honors Scholar, won with a poster about his film productions as a director at NTCC. In 2011, a non-honors NTCC history major, Jared Adams, won first place. Besides these exceptions, Presidential Scholars Isaac Griffin (2012), Stephani Calderon (2013), Noah Griffin (2014) Kayleah Cumpian (2015), Cassia Rose (2016), William Jones (2017), Matthew Chambers (2018), Olivia Griffin (2019), Karla Fuentes (2020), Skylar Fondren (2022), and Alyssa Ochoa (2023) have won the top prizes. Four of the recent winners were also able to gain extremely competitive national awards such as the Guistwhite, the Jack Kent Cooke award, and the All-USA Team. Eight of the twelve most recent winners have also been sophomores.
Even as the competition unfolds, visitors are welcome to learn from the contestants. Admission is free. Anyone wishing to participate should contact Dr. Yox at ayox@ntcc.edu or 903-434-8229. The winners of previous poster contests and a video to help judges better prepare for the event can be found at the site: <www.ntcc.edu/honorsposters>.
