Whiz Kid: Kyra Germany

Cleveland Heights Whiz Kid of the Week: Kyra Germany

• Eighth-grader at 
• Competed in the state Power of the Pen competition at the College of Wooster
• Was student council president last year

Kyra Germany writes because she can hide in her words.

The stories she weaves together are the perfect place for her to express herself, without anyone knowing her true feelings.

“You can talk about yourself without actually talking about yourself,” she said. “Whenever you don’t want to express something serious, you can always find a way to camouflage it so not everyone knows all your business and everything.”

That attraction to the written word has allowed 14-year-old Kyra to become quite the proficient writer. In May she went to the state Power of the Pen competition held at the College of Wooster, competing against 700 other students. Her writing was judged in two previous rounds, at the state and regional level, in order to get to the state competition

“It’s really fun,” she said. “It’s competing, but it’s also really relaxed, and there are no boundaries to what you can write about. You have to stay on topic, but that’s basically all you do. You kind of let your imagination go.”

Power of the Pen is a three-round competition where students are given three writing prompts in each round and 42 minutes to write something based on that prompt. Judges then grade the work, and those with the highest scores get to move on.

Kyra said she doesn’t go in with any set strategy. She just lets the words flow.

“Just write,” she said. “I let topics kind of flow in my head based off the topic given. I kind of let story lines flow, and if I come across one I like, I just start to write. It kind of pulls itself together.”

In addition to her involvement in Power of the Pen, Kyra was also student council president last year and a member of the at Monticello Middle School, an organization that seeks to empower young women and fosters a sense of community by getting them involved in local volunteerism.

She said she hopes to continue to be involved at school in as many activities as she can take on because that will always put her a step ahead in life.

“I feel like you get more experience out of life. You experience more, you meet more people and you just gain more knowledge when you push yourself to do things,” she said.

“We live in a very competitive world. It’s good to have yourself one step ahead of whoever you’re competing against.”

Want to nominate an awesome kid or teen for our weekly Whiz Kid article? Send an email to Michelle.Simakis@patch.com.