Andalusia Elementary School student Grace Shellhouse picked up $1,000 toward her college tuition with a top 10 finish in the HOAR Program Management/GoDaddy Bowl Reading and Writing Contest in Mobile.

Shellhouse and the other students spent the month of October working on their book reports that were entered into the contest of more than 10,000 students, and Shellhouse became the fifth AES student to make the top 10 in the contest.

This was also just the fifth time that AES has participated in the contest.

“We are five-for-five right now,” AES teacher Barbara Peek said. “These kids are really competing at a high level. All the reports that I sent in this year, I felt like they were all top-10 worthy.”

After being selected to the top 10, Shellhouse went to Mobile to compete against the nine other students for the top prize.

“We got down there and had the afternoon to settle in,” Shellhouse said. “Then we went in front of the judges where we had an hour to do our book report. We couldn’t have anything in there with us, except for the book, so I had to memorize my whole report. I think I finished in like 45 minutes.”

Shellhouse said that the report had to be 250 words or less, and all top 10 competitors were given the same book to read over Thanksgiving Break.

“I missed the last Friday of school before the contest because we went out of town to visit family,” Shellhouse said. “I spent most of time communicating back-and-forth with Mrs. Peek to get everything ready to go.”

Shellhouse said that it was an amazing experience and one that she will always remember.

“Just to have the opportunity to be in it was great,” Shellhouse said. “It was a once in a lifetime experience. Winning a $1,000 for college was really great too, now that is $1,000 my parents won’t have to spent on my college.”