Brookings-Harbor High School student Sophia Soberon won Oregon’s 2008 statewide Poetry Out Loud competition on Saturday in Salem.

Poetry Out Loud is a collaborative project of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation and the Oregon Arts Commission, a press release said.

As winner of the Oregon competition, Sophia wins $200 and an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. for herself and a chaperone. Her high school will receive a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry books. In Washington, Sophia will represent Oregon against 52 other contestants, from the states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands. The national competition takes place April 28-29 and will award $44,000 in prize money to 12 finalists.

Oregon had 2,000 students at 19 high schools participate in Poetry Out Loud this year; 13 schools sent winners to the state competition.

Sophia recited “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold, “Bilingual Bilingüe” by Rhina P. Espailat and “The Meaning of the Shovel” by Martín Espada. Sophia is accomplished in English, speech and language, but her passion is theater and dance, the press release said. In the fall, she plans to attend Southern Oregon University, where she hopes to merge her interest in cultural studies with performance.

One other South Coast student was at the competition. Caitlyn McLauchlin, 15, of Bandon High School was a school-level winner, but didn’t make it into the final match last weekend. Her coach was BHS teacher Ellen Howard.

Poetry Out Loud encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance and competition.  More than 200,000 students across the country are expected to take part in Poetry Out Loud this year. For more information, those http://www.poetryoutloud.org.