Drake Becerra, a student at St. Theresa Catholic School in Ashburn, was selected on May 12, 2022 as the fourth grade semifinalist in the 31st annual Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest. Nine students — one from each grade from kindergarten through eighth grade — were selected as the Grand National Champions. Nine other students, including Drake, were named semifinalists.
Students who compete in the contest come from both public and private schools across the country that use the Zaner-Bloser handwriting or reading curriculum. Each year, students in kindergarten through second grade compete in the manuscript category, while students in third through eighth grade compete with cursive writing. All applicants write the required sentence, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” because it contains every letter of the alphabet.
“We know from research that handwriting offers several benefits to children that can support cognitive development and bolster academic outcomes,” said Lisa Carmona, president of Zaner-Bloser. “The Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest encourages the teaching and use of print and cursive handwriting in schools across the U.S. and recognizes students for their commitment to this lifelong skill.”
Participating public and private schools hold their own handwriting competitions and choose a winner from each grade. School grade-level winners then compete against each other at the state level. State-level winners in each grade then continue to the national competition, where judges select nine grade-level grand national champions and nine grade-level semifinalists. Judges determine winners in accord with Zaner-Bloser’s four keys to legibility: the shape, size, spacing and slant of the letters.
As a semifinalist, Drake was recognized for having the second-best cursive handwriting among all fourth-grade entries in the country.
