Way to go! Steven Tsai, North Bellmore

Steven Tsai, a senior at Wellington C. Mepham High School in North Bellmore, beat 15 students to become the state winner of Poetry Out Loud, a recitation contest coordinated by The Poetry Foundation and The National Endowment for the Arts.

To reach the state level, Tsai won first place in poetry recitation contests at the school and regional levels. He will compete for $20,000 at the national level in Washington, D.C., on April 27-29.

"The key is to pick a poem that really speaks to you," said Tsai, 18, who took home $200 for himself and $500 for his school in winning earlier this month. "If anything set me apart it was my accuracy. I've also been told my pronunciation is pretty good and my voice is strong."

At the state level, Tsai performed T.S Eliot's "La Figlia che Piange," John Donne's "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "A Psalm of Life."

He will recite them at the national level, where he will be rated on factors such as presence, diction and overall performance.

"He's a wonderful performer," said Mepham English teacher Marie Netto. "He's able to express the essence of poems."

More than 18,000 students from 80 schools statewide participated in the contest.