Hampton University Freshman wins $10,000 in Grammar Bee
Jenae Boston
$60,000 awarded by Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications in contest
HAMPTON, Va. – April 10, 2009 – Jenae Boston, a freshman from Harlem, N.Y. at Hampton University, won a first-place trophy and a $10,000 scholarship at the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications Grammar Bee on Wednesday, April 8.
Boston and 21 other students practiced for months using the Electronic Grammar Usage Mechanics Punctuation Proficiency (EGUMPP) software program in hopes of becoming one of the 16 finalists. The finalists competed for $60,000 in scholarship money and a trophy in a game-show format of the contest hosted by Tony Brown, dean of the Scripps Howard School. The show was videotaped and drew an audience of more than 300 people to the school.
The contest, which pitted 16 students against each other, posed a series of questions on grammar terms, phrases, clauses and sentence construction. As the rounds progressed, the 16 were narrowed to eight and subsequently eight were narrowed to four.
Boston’s final question, which required an answer in five seconds, was, “In the sentence, ‘I thought that your suggestion was fantastic! What is the function of the word fantastic in that sentence?’ ” Without any hesitation, her winning answer was “predicate adjective.”
“I plan to use my winnings toward tuition at Hampton University,” Boston said. “I decided to start practicing EGUMPP when Dean Brown told me I had high [entrance exam] scores and encouraged me to try.”
Three runners-up earned scholarships of $7,000. They include Danyelle Gary of Macon, Ga.; Jessi Mitchell of Atlanta; and Christopher Torres of Atlantic City, N.J.
The remaining 12 contestants: Jastina Carter of Queens, N.Y.; Jared Council of Yeadon, Pa.; Kirstin Delgado Vargas of Atlanta and Puerto Rico; Derek Garlington of Southington, Conn.; Shannon Epps of Smithfield, Va.; Aaron Hilton of Newport, R.I.; Dexter Johnson of Chesterfield, Va.; Elijah Jones of Silver Spring, Md.; Dardinia Joseph of Newport News, Va.; Natalee Langley of Harlem, N.Y.; Jessica Moore of Raleigh, N.C., and Thaisi Velasquez of North Bergen, N.J. and Brazil, won $1,000 scholarships.
Honorable mention students also receive scholarships of $1,000. They include: Novaughn Deans of Stafford, Va.; Brittany Foster of Cincinnati; Tierra Harris of Ellenwood, Ga.; Stephanie Johnson of Clinton, Md.; Rosalyn Scriven of Durham, N.C.; and Terrance Watkins of Milwaukee.
For more information, contact the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at 757-727-5405.
