Laguna Creek High School's Adri Walker Wins the Sacramento Citywide Competition of the First-Ever 'National Vocabulary Championship'

Laguna Creek High School's Adri Walker Wins the Sacramento Citywide Competition of the First-Ever 'National Vocabulary Championship'

Walker Outperforms 88 Other Top Vocabulary Scholars and Wins $5,000 Toward a Higher Education Savings Plan and Qualifies to Compete in March at the National Vocabulary Championship Finals in New York

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Dec. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Adri Walker, a 17-year-old senior at Laguna Creek High School in Elk Grove outperformed 88 other local vocabulary high school scholars tonight, winning the first-ever NVC Sacramento/Elk Grove Citywide Championship. As the local champion, Walker earned $5,000 toward a 529 higher education savings plan and qualifies to compete in the "National Vocabulary Championship" finals in New York City on March 5, 2007.

The National Vocabulary Championship is a nationwide educational initiative conceived by television network GSN that aims to promote the importance of vocabulary skills in school, at work and at play. Along with its educational partner, The Princeton Review, the NVC is hosting eight citywide events prior to the New York City finals. The finals will feature Walker as she competes head-to-head with 49 other students from around the country to win $40,000 toward a 529 higher education savings plan and be named the "National Vocabulary Champion."

Tonight's live event, sponsored by Comcast Cable, was held at the Crest Theatre. The competition featured 89 high school students aged between 13-and-19 from local area high schools including A. Benjamin Health Professions, Florin, Hiram W. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Laguna Creek, Monterey Trail, Pleasant Grove, Sheldon and West Campus.

On hand lending support to the event were such notable attendees as Dr. Steven Winlock, Associate Superintendent, Elk Grove Unified School District and Dennis Mangers, President, California Cable & Telecommunications Association. Both welcomed the audience of parents, teachers and supporters with opening remarks, kicking off the night's event.

Walker sealed her victory by correctly answering nine of the ten final round questions in the fastest time -- one minute and 15 seconds. The final round featured NVC host Dylan Lane, who also serves as host of GSN's television series "Chain Reaction," reading different paragraphs to the last seven competitors. The final contestants answered a myriad of questions involving specific words in their respective paragraphs. The questions focused on synonyms, antonyms and definitions. The contestant who responded with the most correct answers in the shortest period of time under the two-minute time limit was the winner. The runner-up to tonight's contest was Kristina Heritage, a 15-year-old sophomore also from Laguna Creek High School. Heritage answered nine questions correctly in one minute and 27 seconds. Carolyn King, a 17-year-old senior at Laguna Creek clinched the third spot, making it a sweep for the school.

Said Walker upon receiving her scholarship prize, "I'll use it towards college tuition ... and I didn't come in to this expecting anything." Walker was coached for the event by John Gronich, a teacher at Laguna Creek, who was in attendance tonight cheering on his participating students.

On March 5, Walker will be joining such other recent NVC citywide championship winners as Saba Rahman, a 17-year-old senior from Palm Beach Central High School in Palm Beach; Elizabeth Van Horn, an 18-year-old senior from Cass Technical High School in Detroit; Hannah Zickgraf, a 16-year-old junior from Central High School in Philadelphia; Richard Goggin, a 17-year-old junior from Boston Latin Academy; Noah Berman, a 15-year old sophomore from Metro Classical and Academic High School in St. Louis and Daniel Weber, a 17-year-old senior from Keystone Oaks High School in Pittsburgh.

"GSN is taking the NVC across the country to raise awareness of the importance of language arts in the classroom," said Dena Kaplan, Senior Vice President of Marketing, GSN. "We're investing in America's future by providing money for college to winning students as well as making vocabulary fun and relevant in the game of life. We are thrilled that we will be seeing Adri Walker at the national finals in March."

Comcast has lent support since August by airing "Win with Words" public service announcements. Celebrities Whoopi Goldberg, Jeff Probst, Tom Bergeron and others joined the network in filming these PSAs that encourage high school students to expand their vocabulary and, in turn, their opportunities in life.

To learn more about the NVC, log on to www.winwithwords.com for more information.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR PARTICIPATE IN THE NVC. Open only to high school students who are legal residents of the U.S., between the ages of 13 and 19 as of the date of each applicable NVC exam and/or event. Minors in their state of residency must provide written consent from their parent or legal guardian to be eligible to advance to an NVC citywide championship or regional exam. Void where prohibited. Please visit www.winwithwords.com for complete details, including dates of NVC qualifying examinations and events, additional eligibility restrictions and prize descriptions/restrictions.

About "Win With Words(TM)"

GSN's Win With Words public service campaign is designed to promote the importance of vocabulary skills in one's life no matter the age. Words play an important part in education, careers, communication and even being a contestant on a game show. The Win With Words campaign includes study materials, words of the day, and other elements that improve language arts year-long. These educational features can be found on the website www.winwithwords.com.

About The Princeton Review

The Princeton Review is a pioneer in the world of education. Founded in 1981 and headquartered in New York City, the Company offers private tutoring and classroom and online test preparation to help students improve their scores in college and graduate school admissions tests. The Company's free website, www.PrincetonReview.com, helps over half of university-bound students research, apply to, prepare for, and learn how to pay for their higher education, and helps hundreds of colleges and universities streamline their admissions and recruiting activities. In addition, The Princeton Review works with school districts around the U.S. to measurably strengthen students' academic skills by connecting ongoing assessment with professional development and instruction and by providing districts with college and career resources for both students and guidance counselors. The Company also authors more than 200 print and software titles on test preparation, college and graduate school selection and related topics.

About Comcast Corporation

Comcast Corporation (http://www.comcast.com/) is the nation's leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services. With 23.3 million cable customers, 10 million high-speed Internet customers, and 1.6 million voice customers, Comcast is principally involved in the development, management and operation of broadband cable systems and in the delivery of programming content.

Throughout Central California, Comcast serves 750,000 customers with Digital Cable, Spanish-language and ethnic programming, and advanced services such as High-Definition television (HDTV), video-on-demand, Digital Video Recorders (DVRs), and High-Speed Internet. Every year through the Cable in the Classroom program, Comcast provides more than a million dollars worth of cable video and High-Speed Internet services to local schools at no cost to help enrich the learning experience for our schoolchildren.

Source: GSN

CONTACT: Deborah McBride of GSN, +1-310-633-4175, dmcbride@gsn.com

Web site: http://www.princetonreview.com/

Web site: http://www.comcast.com/

Web site: http://www.gsn.com/

Web site: http://www.winwithwords.com/

NOTE TO EDITORS: Photos available at winwithwords.com or corp.gsn.com

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