Three Highland middle school students were recognized for their creative writing skills by the Iowa Poetry Association in their 2021 Lyrical Iowa Competition. Eighth grader Danika Kraus placed second of 254 entries in the fifth through eighth grade division for her selection titled “Be”. Two other middle school students, seventh grader Jack Krotz with his piece “Write” and eighth grader Jared Diaz with his bilingual work “Paz” were chosen to be included for publication. Lyrical Iowa is an annual anthology of more than 300 poems.