The Monroe Middle School band member, who will be starting the 8th grade in August, last month learned he had initially won Ohio’s top honor and then later discovered his work had further been judged as the grand prize winner.
Nerenberg now pockets $2,500 from the Daughters of the American Revolution organization and will soon travel to Washington, D.C., to the group’s national convention this summer to read a portion of his award-winning essay.
“It’s pretty crazy,” he told the Journal-News.
“I’ve always been interested in music, and I had the opportunity to compete in this contest before but didn’t win top prize. This time, I was trying to put my all into it and trying to make a good essay, and I guess that’s what happened.”
“It’s so exciting,” said Nerenberg, who has played the piano since age six and also plays the saxophone and is a member of the Monroe school theater program.
The trip to the nation’s capital will be his first, and he is eager about it, he said.
Anyone who knows the teen — and his keen focus on school work — shouldn’t be surprised by his national win, said one of his teachers.
“Jack is an exemplary student and a role model for other students in his class,” said Melissa Costello, a Monroe gifted intervention specialist for English language arts.
“Jack always pays close attention to details on his work and his research for this essay — and others he has written in the past — is very thorough,” said Costello.
“He took the essay, which is a historical essay, very seriously and his research is very thorough and that’s part of what makes a winning essay because that’s what (judges) are looking for, as well as an engaging story line.”
“That’s what makes it fabulous.”
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