Jacob Diamond (Weston, FL)
11th grade, Mrs Joyce Seigel
Cypress Bay High School
"Cuisine?"

James Merideth (Vienna, VA)
11th grade, Mrs Song Ja Johnston
Fairfax Academy for Communication and the Arts
"True Beauty"

(Tie)
Michael Chung (Los Angeles, CA)
5th Grade, Ms Vanda Krefft
Curtis School
"Dreams on a Lake"

Troi Ellick (Brooklyn, NY)
11th grade, Ms Maria Fisher
Brooklyn College Academy

Arlene Santos (Chicago, IL)
12th grade, Ms Stella Hahn
Northside College Prep High School

My name is Jacob Diamond, I am 17 years old and currently entering my senior year at Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Florida. I learned of this great poetry competition in my Honors creative writing class, a class which I have continued to take through my high school carreer. The opportunity to express my poetic creativity in a completely new and unique manner quickly pushed my pen to paper. I was inspired to write about the Korean culinary process through my experience walking the streets of the Oriental district of New York City. Through my work, I strived to paint the picture of what I saw through the window of a Korean barbeque restaurant. The image of roasted Korean delicacies caught my attention and put my imagination into motion. Through participating in this contest, I have indulged in the cultural exchange of a diverse society, where most are guilty of oblivion towards other herit! ages. My sijo intends to bridge the cultural divide which widens every day.

Aside from devoting time to my love for writing, I have a great passion for the game of baseball. I have grown up around it, played it for many years, and now I currently work as a bat boy for the Florida Marlins. During the 2007 season with the Marlins, I was fortunate to work with the right-handed pitcher from South Korea, Byung-Hyun Kim. I admire Kim for his great achievements in Major League Baseball and the difficulties he endured in his pursuit to capture the American dream. Kim left Gwangju, South Korea and arrived in America where he faced adapting to a new country and a new language, while still maintaining his strong Korean ties which he shared with us in the Marlins clubhouse. Byung-Hyun Kim stands as one of the few Korean baseball players to play in the World Series.

Next year, I plan to attend the University of Florida where I will study towards becoming a sports attorney for professional athletes as well as enter the business ethics of baseball operations.

 
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Hi, I am James Merideth. I go to George C. Marshall High School at Falls Church, VA. I live in Vienna, VA My hobbies are drawing, reading, and playing video games. In the future, I plan to be a nurse and perhaps write a book or script. I hope to act in or direct a play. The person I look up to the most is... I don't know. I just flow with life. I haven't really thought about it. I learned about the Sijo writing contest from my Korean 1+2 teacher, Song Johnston. I learned that a poem could be about anything you want, and if you know what you're going to write, it's easy.

 
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I am 11 years old and I attend the Curtis School in Los Angeles. I found out about this contest last year when my older brother, Richard, brought home a flyer from his school. Although I had never heard of a Sijo before the competition, I enjoyed this type of writing. Somehow, it seemed easy to express my feelings in this format. Later, I found out from my mom that our family starter, on my dad’s side, sixteen generations ago, Chung Chul, was considered the best Sijo writer in all of Korea at the time. He wrote Samiinkok, a poem known by all Koreans.

My hobbies are playing piano, building complex Legos, and technology. I want to be an entrepreneur, but I am still not sure in what field. Some days I want to make computers; some days I want to build cars; some days I want to start a company like Samsung, which makes refrigerators, cars, computers, and other electronics.

My personal hero is Admiral Yi Sun Shin, who protected Korea (then known as Chosun) from Japanese invaders from 1592–1598. In the last battle, when Japan retreated, Yi Sun Shin was hit in his heart by a stray bullet. However, he acted as if he was not harmed in order to not distract his soldiers. When Korea finally triumphed, he died. I admire that he defeated the Japanese navy of 300 ships, even though he had only 12 ships. I also admire that he fought to stay alive to see his soldiers victorious.

 
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My name is Janelle Torres and I’m from Brooklyn. NY. I go to Brooklyn College Academy High School. I heard of this competition from my English Teacher Maria Fisher. From entering this competition I learned how to just let my emotions go in my writing. My future goals are to continue with my writing and possibly write my own book in the future. My hobbies are writing, watching Sundance/Foreign films and listening to music. My personal hero is my mother because she encourages me and my brothers to follow our dreams.

 
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My name is Jason Hitner, and I am graduating from Chantilly High School this year. I first found this competition through a scholarship flyer in my AP English classroom thanks to my teacher. Upon reading the flyer, making a sijo and writing an essay on Korean folk tales really did interest me and made this competition stand out against any other scholarship. It allowed me to learn more about this distinct culture and press my creativity into a new art. At first I had not even known the sijo poetic form even existed. As I researched, however, I found the sijo to be a pleasant and complementary form that details meaningful thoughts and ideas in just three lines. Its strongest characteristic is its very strong finish that satisfies both the poet and the reader. With so many possibilities, it took many drafts of brainstorming to come up with my personal sijo.

As for my own goals, I aim to become a doctor who uses his knowledge for the benefit of others. It will be a long and tedious path, but if I hold onto friends, then I will definitely succeed. Getting there will include my interests in the piano, foreign languages, and out-in-the-sun fun. Whatever activity I feel I might enjoy, I will pursue such as martial arts, swimming, drawing, writing, learning, dancing… maybe not singing. I will guarantee that I will not just be sitting around unless I am passively enjoying the warmth of the sun or the tranquility of the night.

For a very long time I always told myself that I had no heroes, but then I came to know of Wang LeeHom. He is definitely a person to respect because he knows he can influence others and uses that power for good. He grew up with a very strong educational background and, although he was pressured to become a doctor, he followed his dream and became a singer known for truly being himself. He can sing, play almost any type of instrument, and speak many different languages while acting on his environmental concerns and financially supporting indigent children. He pursues his interests and so will I.

 
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