Students Encouraged to Open up a New Chapter in Their Summer Vacation Plans

NASHVILLE — Tennesseans for Student Success (TSS) is excited to once again launch its  annual Tristar Reads contest to encourage children to read during their summer break.

Each summer, TSS invites all Tennessee students entering grades K-12 to compete for a $1,000 college scholarship by participating in the reading contest and spending at least 20 minutes each day reading a book. This year’s program will run from May 28 to August 4, 2024.

At the end of the summer, we will award a $1,000 college scholarship to the students who read the most in the below categories:

• One overall winner
• One elementary school student (K-4)
• One middle school student (5-8)
• One high school student (9-12)

Children wishing to participate in Tristar Reads must register online to participate and agree to keep track of all hours they spend reading and a list of the books they read. Reading logs must be submitted to Tristar Reads at the end of the summer to determine scholarship winners.

“Reading is a challenge for far too many children in our state and the summer months spent at home often create a “summer slide” for them to climb out of during the fall semester,” said Tennesseans for Student Success President and CEO Lana Skelo. “We created Tristar Reads to help prevent summer academic losses with a fun contest that empowers children to keep their reading comprehension skills sharp. We’ve been amazed at the response we’ve received from Tristar Reads participants each year and are excited to see those pages turning once again.”

Last year students combined to log more than a million minutes reading during the contest including the overall winner who spent more than 31 thousand minutes with a book.

TSS is additionally partnering with Atmos Energy and Vooks to provide children with access to hundreds of digital books. Students who are new to Vooks can sign up for a free 1-year subscription provided through a partnership grant from Atmos Energy.

Prior Tristar Reads winners will be ineligible to compete in the same category.

Tennesseans for Student Success is a statewide network of parents and caregivers, teachers, community leaders, volunteers, and advocates dedicated to championing and supporting Tennessee’s students and their futures.