Sarah Antony, 12, of West Windsor took the top New Jersey award in the 2007 Reader Digest National Word Power Search on March 19. She joins the top winners from all 50 states to battle for the national title and $50,”000 in college scholarships in Orlando on May 14 and 15. She is a seventh grade student at Grover Middle School.##M:[more]##
Unlike a spelling bee, the test challenges students on the understanding of words. A strong vocabulary and a love of reading are vital to success. Antony, who began reading at age four, reads close to nine hours a week. “Poison” is one of her favorite books and “fluffy” is her favorite word.
The annual competition is based on the Word Power column in Reader’s Digest magazine. Ming-Ming Tran, also of West Windsor, took first place in the third annual Reader’s Digest National Word Power Challenge in 2005. She earned a $25,”000 college scholarship. She was a sixth grade student at Grover Middle School at the time.
Antony also won a national award in the John Hopkins Center For Talented Youth Talent Search program, by scoring 740 on the critical reading portion of SAT on January 17. Her total SAT score was 2060. She will be studying etymologies at the three-week summer camp this year. Her brother, Matthew, 7, received a state award in the contest. He is a second grade student at Maurice Hawk School.
