Charlotte Andersen is in seventh grade at St. Clair Elementary. She has lived in Minnesota her whole life and it wasn’t until a she met a certain someone in a different state that she experienced true understanding. Charlotte’s poems are inspired by both them and her friends here in Minnesota, and if any of them end up seeing this she says, “Hey, hello, why are you looking at this? And, I love you.”
Sage Anderson is a senior at Fairmont High School. She enjoys fishing, watching races and reading. She also enjoys driving. To fund that, Sage works at Casey’s in Welcome to save money and get new parts for her truck. She also enjoys spending time with her family and dogs. Sage will graduate in June and will continue to work until her next plans unfold. She enjoyed researching the Irish language and would like to someday learn to speak another language.
Connor Bartlette is a senior at Sibley East High School in Arlington. He enjoys film, theater and music. He will graduate in the spring and plans to attend college.
Ryker Bayerkohleris in fifth grade at Lakeview Elementary in Albert Lea. He is a smart, kind and creative kid. Ryker enjoys video games, Pokemon, climbing trees and geocaching.
Ella Blexrud is a fourth grader at Caledonia Area Elementary. She loves family time and writing!
Elizabeth D. Braun is a third-grader at St. Anne’s School in Le Sueur. She has a creative mind and enjoys writing, clay, art and dance.
Brendan Brookens is a tenth grader at Fairmont High School. He likes loud trucks and loud stereos. Brendan enjoys spending time outdoors shooting his airsoft guns. He also enjoys spending time with his dog, Shark. He hopes to study welding or mechanics to be able to work on vehicles. Brendan is a very observant, quiet and thoughtful young man. He enjoyed writing poetry about his dog and researching how people communicate using facial expressions.
Carsten Clark is in fifth grade at Caledonia Area Elementary. He loves video games and leadership!
Ellie Clark is in seventh grade at NRHEG Secondary in New Richland. She participates in gymnastics and track and field. Ellie loves to write, color and draw. She is very artistic and is a hard worker; she never does something halfway. Ellie always has to try and give it her all.
Jace Conway is a fifth grader at Caledonia Area Elementary. He loves hunting and family!
Thane Conway is in third grade at Caledonia Area Elementary. He loves friends and parties!
Ian Covarrubias is an eleventh grader at Fairmont High School. He loves to sleep and when he stays awake, he likes to play Fortnite with his friends. Ian enjoys hanging out with friends and family. His favorite activity at home with his family is watching movies. He also enjoys having dinner with them. Ian enjoys playing soccer and going bowling. His poem is about how communication in soccer helps win the game.
Liam Erickson is a fourth grader at Caledonia Area Elementary. He loves his family and friends!
Jia-Xin Fanis in sixth grade at Dakota Meadows Middle School in North Mankato. She enjoys drawing, playing the piano, writing and reading. Jia-Xin also likes playing soccer and talking to friends.
Gretchen Fisch is in fifth grade at Caledonia Area Elementary. She loves her friends and writing poetry!
Kinnley Frank is in fifth grade at Caledonia Area Elementary. She loves arts and crafts and being resourceful!
Grayson Franke is in fifth grade atHoover Elementary in North Mankato.He enjoys playing soccer, creating origami and reading. Grayson participates in Math Masters and the Kindness Squad at his school. In the future, he wants to be a professional soccer player. Grayson lives at home with his mom, dad, brother, and dog, Baxter.
Leif Frankron is in fifth grade at Caledonia Area Elementary. He loves video games and leadership!
Angelo Igiraneza Ganza is a first grader at Kennedy Elementary in Mankato. He likes reading and playing sports such as soccer and basketball. Angelo has two siblings who are in sixth and a seventh grade. They both all like writing stories.
Logan Godden is a senior at Fairmont High School and will graduate this spring. He plans to join the National Guard and work in a future career in the military. Logan enjoys working on his grandparent’s farm. He has a dog that he likes spending time with too. In his spare time, he plays video games or watches videos about military topics. Logan enjoyed researching the NATO Alphabet and combat communication techniques.
Cade Gueltzow is a third grader at Caledonia Area Elementary. He loves writing about boats and ships!
Harper Gueltzow is in fourth grade at Caledonia Area Elementary. She loves school and her friends!
Cheyanna Hansen is in eleventh grade at Fairmont High School. In the football seasons, she enjoys going to Vikings games with her dad. She also enjoys fishing, both on the lake in the summer and on the ice in the winter. Cheyanna likes playing outside with her friends. She has three cats and one dog. Cheyanna enjoyed writing a creative story about art and flowers.
Zander Hansenis a senior atFairmont High School. He has many friends at school. Zander has four pets that he cares for at home. He likes to build, go biking and go swimming. Zander works for a lawn care and snow removal company and recently started working at the local Tractor Supply Company. He enjoyed researching how communication impacts employee and employer work relationships.
Nevaeh Hauck is an eighth grader at New Prague Middle School. She loves to capture the world through beautiful photos, loves to edit videos and truly loves all forms of art. When Nevaeh is not writing or reading, she is cuddling a cat at her country home. She enjoys babysitting the neighborhood kids and plans to be an FBI agent when she is older.
Elton Hazelwood is an eighth-grader at Sibley East Middle School in Arlington. He enjoys reading and writing in his free time. Elton plays on the basketball and baseball teams at Sibley East. He is also involved in activities at school including student council, knowledge bowl and is the cross country team manager.
Lauren Hood is in fourth grade at Jefferson Elementary in Mankato. She is a lover of life and enjoys the arts, sports and school. Lauren is kind, artistic, athletic and empathetic. In her future she hopes to be a leader, help others and inspire the world.
Abby Hovendick is a fourth grader at Lakeview Elementary in Albert Lea. She loves to read, write and do gymnastics. Abby also loves to play with her pet dogs, chickens and ducks. She has one sister and one brother.
Isabella Jyrkas is in ninth grade at Waseca Junior/Senior High School. She is a girl with big dreams who loves to make up stories about her life and interests.
Ora Anna Ihimbazwe Kirezi is a seventh grader at Prairie Winds Middle School in Mankato. She loves writing, reading and being with friends and family. She has two brothers, one in first grade and the other in sixth grade.
Drew Klug is in third grade at Caledonia Area Elementary. He loves football and friends!
Rhys Larsen is an eleventh grader at Fairmont High School. He works at Perkins Restaurant in Fairmont as a host and a prep cook. Rhys has a good sense of humor and makes lots of friends. He enjoys hanging out with them at the local parks. Other activities he enjoys include playing baseball, basketball and video games. Rhys has lots of pets. His poetry for this writing contest was inspired his dogs. He also enjoyed researching about how video gaming systems and equipment are essential to communication among online gamers.
Carson Lechner is a third grader at Caledonia Area Elementary. She loves her family, pets and writing stories!
Elle Luttchens is a fifth grader at Caledonia Area Elementary. She loves sports and travel!
Subham Maiti is a fifth grader at Oak Grove Elementary in Bloomington. He likes writing short stories, especially fiction. Subham also loves to read a lot, especially mystery books, because of the cliffhangers and the suspense. Karate is his favorite sports activity. He wants to be a scientist when he grows up.
Sean Meier is in fifth grade at Caledonia Area Elementary. He loves video games and leadership!
A’Shiyah Meyer is a sixth-grader at Futures in North Mankato. She likes to write songs. A’Shiyah is adopted and has trauma history. She wants to be a principal when I grow up.
Amati Ishimo Migisha is a sixth grader at Prairie Winds Middle School in Mankato. He likes to write, draw comics, and play sports, specifically basketball. While he cannot clearly tell his future plans (hoping to have plenty of time to think about it), Amati just continues doing what he likes best.
Havyn Moonen is a junior at Belle Plaine Public High School. She is a student athlete that loves to participate in track and lifting events. Havyn has been writing for fun for as long as she can remember; her first poem was written when she was four years old. Hayvn would like to go into nursing after graduating high school. The poem submitted is about her experience being diagnosed with cancer in 2022 – she is now 11 months in remission.
Henry Oakes is in fourth grade at Caledonia Area Elementary. He loves to read and write!
Cullen O’Heron is a fifth grader at Caledonia Area Elementary. He loves hunting and family!
Kaylee O’Heron is in third grade at Caledonia Area Elementary. She really loves school and family!
Ruben Pena is in seventh grade at Fairmont High School. He enjoys spending time with his family, especially his grandparents. Ruben has fun playing Nerf wars with his brother and friend. At his school he is on the golf team. He also plays basketball with friends or by himself. Ruben plays the violin with his school orchestra. He likes a variety of music. Ruben enjoyed writing a creative science fiction story about aliens who communicate with kids.
Freya Peterson is a sixth grader at Saint Peter Middle School. She is an artistic girl who loves to draw whenever she has any spare time and also loves playing piano. Most of all, Freya loves small animals. In fact she is the proud owner of three pets, a crazy cat, an energetic hamster and a small exotic fish. Freya has big ambitions. She dreams of being a designer and entrepreneur someday in the future. She may also pursue becoming a famous writer as reading and writing short stories are her most favorite pastimes.
Jade Salguero Portillo is in third grade at Caledonia Area Elementary. She loves stories about outer space!
Matthew Ranzenberger is in fourth grade at Caledonia Area Elementary. He loves sports and friends!
Jorden Rasche is in eleventh grade at Fairmont High School. He enjoys spending time with his mom, grandma and cousins. Jordan enjoys getting outside and taking walks. He also enjoys watching movies with his family. His three pet cats keep him entertained as well. Jordan loves technology, especially cell phones, watching YouTube videos, TikTok and FaceTiming with people he cares about. He enjoyed researching how communication and FaceTime are connected.
Ezra Riemermann is a senior at Columbia Heights High School and a first-year Opinion Editor for the school’s student-newspaper, The Heights Herald. He is a devoted political mind with a pension for heated debate. When Ezra is not editing stories for the paper or debating various topics with his coworkers, he works on various creative projects, which seem to tie into a strangely fated crusade to awaken or enlighten a populace who hardly recalls he exists beyond enigmatic recollections.
Abbigail Renaux is a sophomore at Alden-Conger High School
Angela Genesses Rodriguez is a junior at Sibley East High School in Arlington and lives in Gaylord. She does homework, livestreams school home games or events and hangs out with her family and friends. Angela is in health classes and a college class to see what she is interested in doing after high school. She hopes by taking these classes that she can go to a college that is closer to her home to further her education, make decent money, and be in a career that she can enjoy in her life.
Norah Sahr is a fourth grader at Lakeview Elementary in Albert Lea. She is active in 4H and gymnastics. Norah loves reading and playing games.
Sophia Sanderlin is a fourth grader at Caledonia Area Elementary. She loves life and friends!
Iyaan Sharma is a first-grader at Bridges Community School in Mankato. He likes to read books which have “less pictures” in them and likes to tell tall tales of his own too! Iyaan likes playing soccer and is constantly trying to convince his older brothers he is smarter than them, especially when it suits him! At other times, he wants them to make concessions for him and let him have his way because he is a “ small kid”! Iyaan loves to watch Octonauts on TV.
Nityan Sharma is in fourth grade at Bridges Community School in Mankato. He is an active nine year old who loves reading and usually has a book in his hand wherever he goes and whatever he does, whether it is while riding the bus to school or eating his dinner! The only time Nityan is not reading is when he’s playing or watching soccer, or when he is cooking. Experimenting with recipes to make them spicier is another activity he enjoys!
Rohan Sharma is in ninth grade at Mankato West High School. He is an avid reader and enjoys reading a book as much as reading the news. Rohan likes to do a lot of things at the same time, including catching up on his sleep!
Rhema Steele is in fourth grade at Caledonia Area Elementary. She loves school, even though there are problems!
Emily Sustaita is a junior at St. Peter High School. She enjoys the act of being able to do nothing, quietly sitting and observing the world. Emily likes to read and write and loves to learn. She also loves eating strawberries.
Lauren Wakefield is in seventh grade at NRHEG Secondary in New Richland. She enjoys spending time with the animals on her farm and showing cattle and pigs at the fair. Writing and reading is another big part of her hobbies. Lauren thinks it is really fun to just sit down and read a good book, or write a story.
Laurabeth Waldee is a tenth grader at Fairmont High School. She enjoys hobbies that include making jewelry and scrapbooking. Laurabeth has two cats, a dog and an unnamed tarantula. Sometimes she enjoys playing tennis and swimming. She also enjoys shopping, traveling and playing video games. Laurabeth got the idea for her fantasy fiction story after playing Minecraft.
William Waldner is a junior at Faribault Area Learning Center. He is an aspiring musician who is pretty quiet and introverted.
Culie Wilkins is in fourth grade at Lakeview Elementary School in Albert Lea. He is interested in learning everything there is to know about cars and enjoys building with LEGOs.
Jordan Wurm is in third grade at Caledonia Area Elementary. He loves burgers and family!
Taylor Wyczawski is a ninth-grader at New Ulm Area Cathedral School. She is an aspiring young author wanting to write lengthy fiction novels of her own worlds. Taylor enjoys drawing, singing, reading and musical theater. She is the eldest of three and has six rabbits and 31 chickens she loves dearly despite having to clean up their messes. Taylor also wishes she could make a lasting imprint on the world.