Youth / News for the 18-and-under crowd

A skill for rhymes and a few rewrites landed 12-year-old Leslie Green a spot in the judges’ box at the NBA Slam Dunk Contest Feb. 8.

Green’s poem, describing “Why School is Jam’n,” was one of 13 winning entries nationwide in the Nestle Crunch Jam Jury Essay Contest. Green won a weekend trip to Cleveland, where she helped judge the slam dunk competitions and watched the 1997 NBA All-Star game.

“It was because of my teacher . . . that I won it,” said the Fletcher Elementary School sixth-grader, who has her 50-word essay committed to memory. “She kept on pushing me and telling me to rewrite it.”