Skye Hughes ’29 Top 10 in Membean’s 8-Word Homage Contest

In Shorecrest’s ninth grade Honors English course taught by Ms. Elouej, students recently participated in the 2025 Membean 8-Word Contest, sponsored by the vocabulary study program Membean. Competing against all high school students who use the program internationally, the students paid tribute to a person or object of their choosing using only eight words, and including one or more words they encountered during their regular Membean vocabulary-building sessions. Their best homages were collected, and classmates voted for eight favorites to be passed on to Membean’s contest judges, who narrowed the field even further for a Membean user teacher-and-student vote to determine the Top 10. 

According to Shayna Bauman of Membean, “From Chick-fil-A to Gandhi, we received thousands of homages on every imaginable topic, and one of [Shorecrest’s] submissions has been selected as a top 10 finalist!” These clever ten, which included Hughes’s entry, “An Homage to Alarms,” earned the prize of an Amazon gift card to be used for items for the classroom. Skye’s winning homage included the vocabulary word excruciating.

Hughes’s winning homage:

An Homage to Alarms: Loud betrayers, waking dreams with agonizing, excruciating precision.