Pagosa Peak Open School (PPOS) is proud to announce that four of our middle school students have been selected as regional finalists in the 2026 San Juan Youth Poetry Contest.
Hosted by the Mountain Studies Institute (MSI), the contest drew more than 150 submissions from students across the region in grades six through 12.
Out of just 20 finalists total selected by judges, PPOS students —Rayleen, Lexie, Jayelle, and Cambria — represent 20 percent of all finalists.
The accomplishment is especially remarkable given PPOS’s small student body of just 140 students.
“We are so thrilled and immensely proud of our students,” said PPOS School Director Emily Murphy. “For a school of our size to represent one-fifth of the finalists in a competitive regional contest with over 150 entries speaks volumes about the creativity, dedication and courage of our young writers. At Pagosa Peak Open School, we aim to cultivate conditions where students feel empowered to express themselves, and seeing their artistic voices recognized on this scale is exciting.”
The finalist poems have been forwarded to Colorado State Poet Laureate Crisosto Apache, who will evaluate the entries to select three overall winners in each age division.
Middle School ELA Advisor Alison Beach shared about the depth of talent and effort her students brought to their work.
“There are some excellent poets in this school,” Beach said. “The eighth-graders have been learning about poetics and the power of storytelling through the novel-in-verse ‘The Crossover’ by Kwame Alexander. This story about a basketball-loving teen and his family introduced them to many different types of poems, including occasional poems, definition poems, odes, repetition, time stamp poems, found material poems and free verse. For the contest many students used these poetic types and devices masterfully to write about the San Juan Mountains.”
The student finalists also expressed their excitement about the recognition:
“I was so surprised,” Rayleen said.
For her poem structure, she chose to write an occasional poem and shared that she learned so much from this year’s ELA class.
“I hadn’t even written a poem before this school year,” Jayelle said, who wrote a found materials poem for the contest and agreed that the lessons in class helped immensely with her ability to compete in this contest.
While all the poems focused on the theme of the San Juan Mountains, each poem took a different perspective.
“I focused on the snow melting into spring,” Cambria said. “It’s a rhyming poem that focuses on the experiences we have in the mountains.”
All 20 regional finalists are invited to attend the San Juan Youth Poetry Contest Winners Celebration, hosted by MSI at the Durango Public Library on Friday, Nov. 6, at 6 p.m. Winners will be announced by Colorado State Poet Laureate Crisosto Apache, prizes will be awarded and student finalists will read their work.
Additionally, all finalist poems will be featured in a special exhibition on display at the Durango Public Library throughout the months of November and December.
PPOS is a tuition-free Performance charter school serving kindergarten through eighth-grade students through innovative, project-based and place-based learning. For more information about PPOS, visit pagosapeakopenschool.org.
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