Jefferson student Mikiah Gerrity to represent Illinois in national poetry contest

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — Jefferson High School student Mikiah Gerrity will represent Illinois in a national poetry competition in Washington D.C.

Gerrity hasn’t been reciting poetry for long, just over a year, but the Jefferson High School Junior said she connected to it right away.

“I felt like … I could connect to them and I could actually step into the shoes of the people that were in the poems,” she said. “And I feel like the other people just kind of read it. But I felt like I actually knew the poem.”

Now, Gerrity is the Illinois Poetry Out Loud State Champion, a competition of over 7,000 students. She will represent the state at a national contest in Washington D.C.

“I was like, I don’t think I’m going to win. Like, I have not a lot of hope for this. And then I won. And I just kind of stood there like, I don’t know how to feel about this,” she recalled. “And I’m still not even feeling the significance of it. Like, when people are like, ‘Oh, you’re the state winner.’ I don’t even know how to feel about that yet.”

Gerrity said she was encouraged to enter the competition by her speech coach, Jefferson teacher Doug McArthur.

“I knew she was awesome, but you couldn’t be sure if that’s what the judges wanted to see that time,” McArthur said. “I think I almost jumped off the balcony when they announced her name. It was just a huge, huge moment. I still get a little goosebumps when I think about it again.”

With the nationals just a month away, Gerrity says she hopes she can inspire others to take on challenges.

“I think people are too afraid of stepping out of their comfort zone. I think people are too afraid to try new things because they’re afraid that it won’t work out, but they can take it from my case,” she said. “I didn’t think that I would win, and I did. So just take the chance to do something different.”