By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director
The Fourteenth Annual McGraw-Hill Poster Contest is set for Friday, May 6th 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 2021-22.
This year’s event is beholden to a Whatley Enhancement Grant and Jerald and Mary Lou Mowery of Mount Vernon, major patrons of many initiatives of Honors Northeast. The event also is receiving financial help for the thirteenth straight year from McGraw Hill, one of the three premier education companies in the United States, through Mr. Casey Slaght, of the Dubuque, Iowa office.
This year’s scholarship fair on 6 May will again be live, as with the previous contests, from 2007 to 2019, with the resumption of last year’s contest in 2021. Contestants 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.
NTCC Presidential Scholars, the top tier of Honors Northeast, were thrown off pace last year as Honors Scholars, the second tier, won first, second, and third place. Brian Ramirez, won last year 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), and Karla Fuentes (2020) have won the top prizes in recent years. 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 eleven most recent winners have also been sophomores.
The 20 scholars of Honors Northeast will compete. Other students wishing to enter the contest should send an abstract of 100 words to Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director, at ayox@ntcc.edu explaining why their project represents an original work of scholarship by noon, 5 May. Yox can also offer advice and help regarding posters and protocol for the one-hour contest. The winners will be announced at 11 a.m. in the Whatley Foyer on 6 May, soon after the judging.
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>.
