South Bend student wins national handwriting contest

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- A seventh grade student from Corpus Christi School in South Bend was chosen as a winner in the 2019 Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest.

Lauren Quiroz was honored for her cursive handwriting which was deemed the best among all seventh-grade entries across the country.

“Every year Zaner-Bloser sponsors that National Handwriting Contest and we name a grand national champion at every grade level and so Lauren actually achieved the grand national champion status for 7th grade which means she’s the best 7th grade handwriting student selected from participants around the country,” Indiana Representative for Zaner-Bloser Educational Publishing Company, Rita Cook said.

Quiroz was among nine other students from other grades who earned the distinction of grand national grade-level champions.

Over 250,000 students participated in the contest this year.

Judges picked winners based on “keys of legibility” which included size, shape, slant and spacing.

“We know from the research that students that are given handwriting instruction perform academically than students that are not given that instruction so it’s a really important skill to have,” Cook said. “We also know that students that take notes by hand remember more than those who take it all on keyboard, so we know that handwriting is a really important skill for any student to have.”

Quiroz won $500 for her achievement and is the school’s third national winner within the last ten years.