Perfect penmanship lands North Pole second-grade student a winning title

That sentence is used in the competition because it includes every letter of the alphabet, according to a Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest news release. Entries were judged based on four keys to legibility: the shape, size, spacing and slant of the letters.

Summit Christian Academy is a strong believer in students practicing handwriting and learning cursive.

“At our school, starting in third grade, our students begin learning cursive,” said principal and teacher Alana Duvall, who also is Braxton’s mom. “Cursive is almost becoming a foreign language. Sometimes people will see the handwriting and say, ‘I have no idea what that says.’ So we really value cursive and we want our students to learn it because it is such a nice thing to know and not everybody knows how to do it.”

Braxton’s father is Josh Duvall, director of communications for the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.

Students start every school day practicing handwriting, Alana Duvall said.

This was the second time the school entered the national handwriting contest. Here is how it worked:

First, students competed among their own classmates at the 2024-2025 Summit Christian Academy Handwriting Contest. Winners of that local contest then went on to the national competition for grades K-6.

At Summit Christian Academy, those local winners include Zephaniah Tritasavit, fourth grade; David Ahlquist, third grade; Olivia Rivera, first grade; Claire Lai, kindergarten; and Braxton DuVall, second grade. They all received special certificates from Zaner-Bloser for their participation in the national contest.

Regional winner Braxton received a special certificate from Zaner-Bloser and an engraved medallion recognizing his outstanding handwriting achievement. His teacher, Deanna Woods, also received a certificate of achievement, at a special ceremony at the school Wednesday morning.

“All of these students do incredible work, but what they represent also are amazing teachers who have supported them and taught them how to have beautiful handwriting,” said the principal, who also happens to be his mother. “Braxton has been working hard since kindergarten and his teacher Miss Woods has supported him every single day.”

The teacher was awarded a special Zaner-Bloser handwriting contest journal and a special tote bag.

By the way, Braxton has won the local school handwriting contest every year since he has been in school. He is taking this championship in stride.

“He doesn’t really know what to think about it,” his mother said. “I think mainly he is excited because we’re really excited.”

Both public and private schools participate in this annual national contest. Students in grades K-2 submit manuscript (print) entries. Students in grades 3-6 submit cursive handwriting entries.

Twenty-eight regional winners are selected in four geographic regions. From that group, seven Grade-Level Grand National Champions are selected.

This contest has celebrated best in manuscript and cursive penmanship for more than three decades. Since 1991, more than 2.75 million students have participated in the contest. This year, contest entries came from 48 states as well as Washington D.c.

Zaner-Bloser develops curriculum resources to teach foundational literacy and math skills to students in prekindergarten through sixth grade.