Fifteen-year-old Brianna VanArsdale, of Mt. Pleasant, is a freshman at Mt. Pleasant Area High School who likes to work with words. She has shown her ability to comprehend literature by winning a WordMasters Challenge Competition, and placing 10th in the national ranking. The WordMasters Challenge is a competition geared toward reading at an in-depth level, focusing on attentive reading and sensitivity to language. Students who participate in honors English courses are eligible for the competition, with 55,000 competing annually, representing 46 states. Students are given specific texts to read, ranging from short works of fiction to poetry, and although the texts vary in subject, length, tone and voice, they share the same style. Works chosen for the competition utilize language to show the multiple layers and underlying currents and meanings, not necessarily apparent to the casual reader. After completing the material, students are then given multiple choice questions to measure students’ interpretations of the rational and/or emotional logic of the works. After the competition, students are given additional topics for discussion with written responses. VanArsdale was shocked to see she achieved such a high ranking in the competition. “I was completely surprised,” VanArsdale said. “I just came into class one day and the certificate was lying on my desk.” But VanArsdale is not a stranger to winning awards, taking home the top prize in the Westmoreland Heritage Festivals poetry contest when she was in elementary school. Out of the 16,000 entrants, VanArsdale’s poem titled “What Makes America Great” took home the award. “It was just something I thought I’d try,” VanArsdale said. VanArsdale broadened her writing horizons and began to write poetry on a regular basis, now having two of her many poems published. Her poems “Thanksgiving” and “For You Grandma” have been accepted into poetry compilations. She penned them when she was eleven. “She has amazing insight,” her mother, Dianne VanArsdale said. “She can take something negative and see something else in it, something positive that gives hope.” And VanArsdale is to the point that she is constantly working on her poetry and writing. “I always take a journal with me where ever I go,” VanArsdale said. “An idea will come to me and I’ll just let my mind take me wherever I want to go.” Many friends, family members and teachers have related her ability to move them through her poetry. “I write for myself and I keep going for others,” VanArsdale said. “Everyday I get more and more ideas and I just write them down.” Graduation is years away for VanArsdale, but her future may be in her ability to comprehend and work with the written word. “I have thought of being a plastic surgeon, working with reconstructive surgery,” VanArsdale said, “but I think that my true calling is writing and I’m torn between the two. I want to help people regardless of what it is I do, and I think that the best way for me to do that is through my poetry.”

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