CHRISTINE CINQUINO, 15, daughter of Joseph and Connie Cinquino of Westminster.

School: Freshman at Mount de Sales Academy for Girls in Catonsville.

Honored for: Getting her poem, "The Chicken Turkey," published in Stories for Children by Children: A Creative Writing Newsletter.

Christine also won second place in the poetry division of the "Celebration of Life" contest sponsored by the Catholic Daughters of the Americas, Court Caton.

Goals: Christine said she plans to continue writing and enjoys poetry.

"The poem which won was a silly one about a turkey who was a chicken about Thanksgiving," she said.

She often lets her parents read her work but allows no parental editing: "I don't like them to touch it."

Last year, as a student at Mother Seton School in Emmitsburg, she won first place in Maryland and second in the nation for an essay on the 1916 Easter Uprising in Ireland.

Comments: "I like creative writing. I think I started in the first grade where I won a Young Author's award for a short story."

At Mount de Sales, she works on Images, the academy's literary magazine. She hopes to become its editor. She is also interested in science -- biology is her favorite subject.