Numerous Mars Area High School and Mars Area Middle School students competed in the 2025 Youngstown State University English Festival, held April 9-11.

At the Grades 7-9 event (April 11), eighth-grader Lydia Arnold earned first place; freshman Addison Neese, second place; and, eighth-grader Neva Jaynes, third place, in the Connections event. Eighth-grader Rhythm Srivastava took first place in the Art Contest and eighth-grader Allison Sottile received third place in the Writing Games.

Freshman Isabella Cira took second place and seventh-grader Emma Johnston took third place in the Not-So-Trivial Pursuit competition. Eighth-grader Rhythm Srivastava earned first place and eighth-grader Madeline Gibson received third place in the Journalism event.

Other participants included freshmen Leonie Haibach and Riley Long; eighth-graders Londyn Denk, Lindsey Hutchens, Eva Marie Nicotra, Ella Ostapchenko, Aarya Raut, Liliana Settlemire, Elizabeth Shaha, Juliet Snyder and Sage Wilson; and, seventh-graders Mackenzie Allshouse, Madeleine Garraux, Everly Henderson, Ishita Jain, Madeline Schlichtkrull and Sidu Senthilkumar.

At the Grades 10-12 event (April 9), juniors Giana Bisceglia and Olivia Dickson earned first place awards and senior Alli Cannon and sophomore Lily Cicconi took second place in the Connections event.

Junior Sarah Buttyan took first place in the Not-So-Trivial-Pursuit. Sophomores Amanda Morrison and Faith Pearson received seventh place and eighth place, respectively, in the Impromptu Essay competition.

Other participants included juniors Gianna Goodman, Stevie Oberhofer and Kiara Van Wyk; sophomores Naeerah Dheen, Reagan Dunn, Ava Moravek and Claire Norris.

To prepare for the event, the students read seven books selected by the English Festival Committee. At the festival, guest speakers included authors Alan Gratz and Quartez Harris and students participated in writing workshops in addition to competing in literature-related games.

The annual event, open to students in Grades 7-12, welcomes of students from schools in Western Pennsylvania and Ohio and is meant to promote and cultivate reading and writing.

For more information, visit http://ysuenglishfestival.org.