Members to be Published in Nota Bene, Receive $3,000 in Scholarships

Literary works from 23 Phi Theta Kappa members have been chosen from more than 800 entries for publication in the 2013 edition of Nota Bene, the Society's honors anthology. Authors of the five most outstanding entries received $3,000 in Nota Bene scholarships.

"I have been telling stories long before I could write words. Writing has always been, and always will be, a passion of mine, and I hope to author a series of young adult novels in the near future," said Casey Covel, a recent graduate of Brevard Community College now attending Eastern Florida State College.

Covel received the Nell Ewing Citation Award for best entry in Phi Theta Kappa's annual Nota Bene literary competition for her poem, "Genuine." �She expressed her gratitude for the honor and said she planned to use the $1,000 scholarship to pay for classes she would not have otherwise been able to afford.

The award was recently renamed the Nell Ewing Citation Award in honor of Nell Ewing, who retired December 31, 2012, after serving on the staff for 26 years. Read more.�

Nota Bene was founded in 1994 to showcase exceptional writing among community college students. Copies of Nota Bene are distributed to all community college libraries and to Phi Theta Kappa leaders. Since the establishment of the journal and the scholarship program, $57,000 in scholarships have been presented to Phi Theta Kappa members, and more than 300 students have had their work published. Entries for the 2014 Nota Bene competition are due December 6, 2013. Learn more.

Winners of the 2013 Nota Bene scholarships are�

Ewing Citation Scholarship of $1,000, for the Best Overall Entry:
"Genuine", Poetry
Casey Covel
Brevard Community College-Titusville, Florida

Reynolds Awards of $500 each:
"Point of View" - Poetry
William Levitt
Coastline Community College, California

"Kilkenny" - Short Story
Kathren Rintoul
Lower Columbia College, Oregon

"Bleeding Hearts" - Short Story
Casey Romero-Tobia
Trident Technical College, South Carolina

"Chasing Canyons" - Short Story
Stacey Bouffard
Pima Community College, Arizona

The following students had their work selected for publication:

Research Papers
"The Decline of Reading Proficiency: A Proposal"
William Lawrence Levitt
Coastline Community College, California

"Opening Windows"
Jamie Turner
Virginia Western Community College, Virginia

"Literacy Lessons Learned"
Stacie Brown
Blinn College, Texas

Essays
"Don't Act Like Those Black People (Aunque Somos Negros)"
Erika Padilla-Morales
Merritt College, California

"My Father's Son"
Joey Wieser
Seattle Central Community College, Washington

Short Stories
"I Write for Her"
Kelly Hall
Warren County Community College, New Jersey

"The Monster Within"
Lisa Rebekah Lawrence
Blue Ridge Community College, Virginia

"The Pilgrim"
Carolyn Lucas
Pearl River Community College-Forrest County, Mississippi

"Surprise Me"
Angelica Ivette Colón
Pikes Peak Community College, Colorado

Poetry
"Soldiers to the Slaughter"
Alysa Joerger
Sierra College, California

"Cage"
Monica Samson
Prince George's Community College, Maryland

"A City called Home"
Lachuna S. Fedrick
Darton State College, Georgia

"Falling Rain (You cannot feel)"
Kara Nelson
Hawaii Community College, Hawaii

"Cawly"
Casey Covel
Brevard Community College-Titusville, Florida

"My Spirit Speaks Through Dance"
Mirline Petit-Frere
Palm Beach State College, Florida

"Submerged Awareness"
Cheryl Kutcher
Lone Star College-Tomball, Texas

"Feral Cat"
Jill A. McEldowney
Jackson Community College, Michigan

"The Idol"
Tess Nakaishi
Clark College, Washington

"Winter, 1916"
Kathren Rintoul
Lower Columbia College, Oregon

"Two Windows"
Jennifer Perry
Nassau Community College, New York

"Jasenovac"
Kathren Rintoul
Lower Columbia College, Oregon

"For Anybody who got Too Drunk and Spent the Night"
Melina Gotera
Hawkeye Community College, Iowa

"Descent"
Stacey Bouffard
Pima Community College, Arizona

Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, headquartered in Jackson, Miss., is the largest honor society in higher education with 1,285 chapters on college campuses in all 50 of the United States, plus Canada, Germany, the Republic of Palau, Peru, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the British Virgin Islands, the United Arab Emirates and U.S. territorial possessions. More than 2.5 million students have been inducted since its founding in 1918, with approximately 135,000 students inducted annually.