By Bonita Wilborn
Hannah Grant, a 2018 graduate of North Sand Mountain, represented her school at the National Beta Convention, which was held in Savannah, Georgia on June 17-20. Hannah competed in the Poetry Division II Competition, along with approximately 40 other competitors and took 8th place.
At the competition, participants were given the topic, “If trees in Savannah could whisper and tell stories, what is the most memorable story they would tell?” and then they were instructed to write a poem of 200 words or less. When completed the poems were turned in, read, and then judged by convention representatives.
Hannah admitted that her preference in the writing genre is in the field of fiction, which is what she was able to work with at the national competition, but that she also enjoys writing things that she is specifically interested in and/or things that apply to her personally, such as her weekly blog titled, “Fearless and Favored”. In this blog she posts things that are specific to her personal faith, and things that apply to her directly. To follow Hannah’s blog log onto fearlessandfavored.wordpress.com.
Earlier in the year, Hannah attended the State Beta Convention and also competed in the Poetry Division II competition where she came away with 1st place out of approximately 20 participants. At the state level participants who place in the top three spots were permitted to move on to the national level.
Hanna has been involved in Beta since 7th grade where she began in Junior Beta and continued throughout her years of high school all the way to the 12th grade. Hannah said that while she has always had a general interest in writing, her interest writing was really sparked through a creative writing class she took in her junior year at North Sand Mountain High School.
Hannah said, “My sponsors were probably my biggest cheerleaders for me. When we were taking slots for the state convention I really only did poetry because my Beta sponsor told me that I needed to do something and so she just put me in poetry because she knew that I like to write. The sponsors are the ones who, whenever I’d come out of a competition and I’d feel like I wouldn’t place at all or that my work didn’t make sense, they had more confidence in my ability than I did in myself. Without them encouraging me to do poetry at the state convention I probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to compete at the national level.
Hannah has plans to continue her education at Northeast Alabama Community College (NACC) where she will pursue an English major, and after completing her classes at NACC she plans to transfer to the University of Alabama and seek a degree in journalism.