Several local youth from campuses across Polk School District were honored as the 2025 Georgia Young Author representatives for their grade level, heading onward to represent the district at the next level of competition.

PSD announced two youth from Westside Elementary, two from Cherokee Elementary, two from Eastside Elementary, a pair of Cedartown Middle students plus a Rockmart Middle, Cedartown High and trio of Rockmart High students were honored by the district for their achievement.

Here’s this year’s list of winners:

Princeton Sewell – Kindergarten, Westside Elementary

Nate Heuer – First Grade, Cherokee Elementary

Waverly Sikes – Second Grade, Eastside Elementary

Georgia Anne Graves – Third Grade, Westside Elementary

Nayeli Lopez Coronado – Fourth Grade, Cherokee Elementary

Jud Forsyth – Fifth Grade, Eastside Elementary

Isaac Reynoso Reynoso – Sixth Grade, Cedartown Middle

Adeline Coco White – Seventh Grade, Cedartown Middle

Hannah Adams – Eighth Grade, Rockmart Middle

I’Anayah Robinson – Freshman, Cedartown High

Adamary Duran Perez – Sophomore, Rockmart High

Sadalea Barrow – Junior, Rockmart High

Alaia Hoskins – Senior, Rockmart High

The group will now go onto represent PSD at the RESA District Competition for Northwest Georgia, with a chance to go onward to the state level.

The competition annually takes in a variety of styles of writing from students across the state and picks some of the top authors from each school to then represent their districts. Everything from fiction to poetry to academic writing can be considered for the annual competition.

Regional level winners will be announced after the final deadline later this month, and state winners should be announced by April.