This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

Whiz Kid: Emma Quill

This soon-to-be fifth-grader recently won a writing contest for a play she submitted to Dobama Theatre

Cleveland Heights Patch Whiz Kid of the Week: Emma Quill

  • About to enter the fifth grade at
  • Won a contest through the  for writing a play
  • Won first place last year at a science fair for an experiment testing whether the color of candles affects how fast they burn

For 10-year-old Emma Quill, writing is almost a kind of therapy.

She first realized its power when she joined a writer’s club at last year, and ever since, she’s used pen to paper to reveal her thoughts. 

Find out what's happening in Cleveland Heightswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“I like how you can express your feelings on a piece of paper,” she said. “You can write how you want it and how you like it so that it’s legible for yourself.”

Emma recently learned that her creative outlet is also appealing to others. A play she wrote was a winner in the annual of Dobama Theatre. She was Cleveland Heights residents out of more than 200 entries to win.

Find out what's happening in Cleveland Heightswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Her play, The Decision, was about a middle-class woman who had to choose between marrying a poor man or a rich man. The heavily courted woman had physical imperfections such as acne and buck teeth. An easy choice would have been to marry the rich man, using his money to fix herself up, according to her play. But after asking each of her suitors a series of questions, she decided on the poor man — he was her match.

“It was possibly a lesson to learn that it doesn’t matter what the person looks like, it doesn’t matter how they act, it just matters if they love each other and if they know who the person really is and they know how to treat them,” she said.

She said she entered the contest after learning about it from the writing class instructor. Although she didn’t expect to win, she’s happy she did.

“I thought, ‘Wow, I didn’t know my play would be this good to be winning.' I thought I was just writing a play for fun,” she said.

Emma is also member of her school’s chess club, participates in gymnastics, plays piano and clarinet and has taken voice lessons for the past five years.

Last year she also won first place in her school’s science fair. She tested whether the color of a candle affected how fast it burned, and found that it did not.

Do you know a Whiz Kid? Send your nominations to Cleveland Heights Patch editor Michelle Simakis.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Cleveland Heights