Detroit Renaissance senior Steven Banks and National Vocabulary Championship host Dylan Lane.
Detroit -- Renaissance High School senior Steven Banks outperformed 78 other local high school vocabulary scholars on Dec. 3 winning the National Vocabulary Championship (NVC) Detroit Citywide Championship held at Renaissance High School.
As the local champion, the 17-year-old Banks earned $5,000 toward a "529" higher education savings plan and qualified to compete in the "National Vocabulary Championship" Finals in Los Angeles on March 10, 2008.
Banks sealed his victory in the third and final round of competition by correctly identifying the word "Flagitious" as the synonym of "Heinous" from the following sentence:
"It was animosity rather than avarice that induced the megalomaniacal misanthrope to commit such flagitious deeds against his naive neighbors."
Banks also won a $500 gift certificate from Mr. Alan's clothing stores, the local sponsor of the event.
The knock-out-style round of vocabulary questions had begun with five finalists, of which Willa Chen from Plymouth High School placed second. As the second-place finalist, Chen will receive Encyclopedia Britannica's 2008 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD as well as books and services from The Princeton Review.
Kinnard Hackenhull (Detroit Renaissance), Eric Grunkemeyer (Livonia Churchill), and Lauren Doute (Southgate Anderson) also made the final round.
The National Vocabulary Championship is a national academic competition conceived by GSN (Game Show Network) and its educational partner, The Princeton Review. The competition goes beyond traditional "spelling bees" to test word definitions and overall word comprehension while providing college-bound students with the tools necessary to effectively communicate their ideas to the world.
There are eight citywide qualifying events prior to the NVC Finals in Los Angeles, in which Banks will go head-to-head with 49 other top-scoring students from the 90,000 who participated throughout the country.
The winner of the NVC Finals will receive $40,000 toward a "529" higher education savings plan and the title of "2008 National Vocabulary Champion."
The Detroit event featured the top 79 scorers of the more than 10,000 students who participated at the qualifying level from local area schools including: Allen Park, Southgate Anderson, Dearborn Heights Annapolis, Armada, Breithaupt Career and Tech Center, Detroit Cass Tech, Detroit Central, Detroit Chadsey, Livonia Churchill, Detroit Cody High, Detroit Communication and Media Arts, Detroit Crocket Career Technical Center, Detroit Davis Aerospace Tech, Dearborn, Detroit Denby Tech and Prep, Detroit City, Detroit School of Arts, Livonia Franklin, Novi Franklin Road Christian, Detroit Hustle & TECHknow, Inkster, Detroit Martin Luther King, Detroit Mumford, Detroit Northwestern, Detroit Pershing, Plymouth, Redford, Detroit Renaissance, Birmingham Seaholm, Detroit Southeastern School of Technology, Southfield, Orchard Lake St. Mary's Prep, and Livonia Stevenson High.
All competitors tonight were awarded one-year Encyclopedia Britannica Online subscriptions from NVC sponsor Encyclopedia Britannica.
On hand to show his support for the NVC, Detroit City Council President Kenneth V. Cockrel, Jr. opened the event, commending GSN's educational efforts with the NVC and congratulating the Detroit finalists for their achievement.
Elizabeth Van Horn from Cass Technical High School was crowned Detroit's first NVC Citywide Champion during last year's event and subsequently competed in the inaugural NVC finals.
At the NVC Finals on March 10, Banks will be joining St. Louis' Rajiv Tarigopula (a 15-year-old sophomore from Parkway West High School), Sacramento's Yvonne Lin (a 16-year-old sophomore from Folsom High School) and Nashville's Brian Swenson (a 16-year-old junior from Montgomery Bell Academy), each of whom recently won their own NVC citywide championships.
A proud partner of this and other educational initiatives in the area, Comcast Cable has again lent support to the National Vocabulary Championship. "Comcast's partnership with GSN and the NVC reaffirms our commitment to reinvigorate the minds of our young people to better prepare them to enter the global marketplace that we live in," remarked Gerald Smith, Regional Manager of Government Affairs for Comcast Michigan. "We applaud all the students who participated in this year's NVC and look forward to seeing Steven compete in the National Finals in Los Angeles."
"Comcast has been a valued supporter and committed partner of the NVC's efforts to further promote education programs in schools throughout the Detroit region," said Dennis Gillespie, Senior Vice President of Distribution, GSN. "We're thrilled that so many students like Steven are participating in cities across the country this year and wish him the best in representing Detroit in the National Finals on March 10."
To learn more about the NVC, visit www.winwithwords.com.
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