Local BCPS Students Honored at MD Regional Braille Challenge

Three area Baltimore County Public Schools students earned high honors in the 2019 Maryland Regional Braille Challenge.

This year, more than 35 students from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington, D.C. participated in the regional event held on Feb. 9, hosted by the Maryland School for the Blind and the Maryland State Department of Education. During the event, participants, ages 4 to 19, competed in five categories requiring them to read and type braille. Regional events are the first step on the road to the national competition. Once all the regional tests have been completed throughout North America, the 50 students with the top scores (10 from each of five age divisions) will be invited to compete in the National Braille Challenge Competition, to be held in Los Angeles in June. The BCPS students will find out in early May if they have qualified as finalists for the national competition.

Eniola Osunkoya of Nottingham, a Grade 2 student at Chapel Hill Elementary, won first place in the Apprentice division (Grades 1 – 2), and was also the highest scorer in the competition and the most improved participant (from last year). He received an Orioles uniform shirt that had Braille on it. This shirt was worn in a game last year, and that was the first time braille ever appeared on a major league baseball shirt.

The other first place winner from BCPS is Julia Stockburger of Nottingham, a Grade 8 student at Perry Hall Middle School. She won first place in the Junior Varsity division (Grades 7 – 9). She has qualified five times for the national competition.

Also in Grade 8 at Perry Hall Middle, Sujan Dhakal placed third in the Junior Varsity division. A new BCPS student, Dhakal has previously qualified for the national competition.
The Braille Challenge® is the only academic competition for blind and visually impaired students in the United States and Canada.