Kahuku High & Intermediate School student Tiffany Polk is the state winner in the Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest.

Polk, a senior, recited "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou and "Unknown Girl in a Maternity Ward" by Anne Sexton. For her effort, she won an all-expense-paid trip to the national finals in Washington, D.C., and a chance to win a $20,000 college scholarship. She also won $500 to purchase poetry books for her high school and $200 in cash.

Cate Browning, of Mid-Pacific Institute, was the second-place winner.

The competition, at Tenney Theatre, is part of a national program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance and competition.

It is sponsored by the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the Honolulu Theatre for Youth, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.