MUNCIE, Ind. - A senior at Indiana Academy for Mathematics, Science and Humanities recently finished second in a regional Shakespeare competition.

Katie Dombek, the daughter of Daniel and Lorraine Dombek of South Whitely, Ind., participated in the Indiana High School Shakespeare Competition at the University of Indianapolis Feb. 22.

This is the third year academy students have participated in the National Shakespeare Competion and the first time a contestant has placed in the top four.

The competition is a curriculum-based program designed to help high school students develop their language skills and dramatic talents through the memorization and interpretation of a Shakespearean monologue and sonnet. Teachers use the program as a tool to encourage and enhance the study of Shakespeare.

Dombek, who attended Whitko High School before enrolling at the Indiana Academy, was awarded $200, tickets to Indianapolis Replatory Theater's play "Othello," and tickets to University of Indianapolis' production of Brecht's "Galileo."

State competition winners advance to the English-Speaking Union's National Shakespeare Competition in New York later this spring.

The winner of the New York competition receives a two-week summer course in Great Britain, and is also honored by the American Academy of Achievement during its Salute to Excellence weekend.

The Indiana Academy is the state's only residential public high school for academically gifted juniors and seniors. The school is located on the Ball State University campus and enrolls about 300 students annually.

By Marc Ransford, Communications Manager