Oxford student Peyton McGuire is finalist for $10,000 in the National Memory Master competition

Published 6:00 am Sunday, April 30, 2017

An Oxford sixth-grader will embark this weekend on a voyage to become a national memory champion and earn a $10,000 grand prize.

Peyton McGuire, 11, of Oxford, is one of 16 finalists in the National Memory Master competition. On May 1 Peyton will compete in three rounds of academic memory testing during a five-day cruise to the Bahamas aboard the Carnival cruise ship Liberty. Each of the finalists received two free tickets to the cruise and $800 in traveling money.

“I feel honored and very blessed to have been selected as a finalist in this competition,” Peyton said.

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The 16 finalists have already been through a rigorous series of local and regional competitions to reach the finals. Peyton’s history presentation to reach this point in the competition was a review of America’s successes and failures in living up to the ideals of the U.S. Constitution.

The National Memory Master competition is hosted by Classical Conversations, Inc., a classical education resource used by homeschoolers in all 50 states and 15 foreign countries. Classical Conversations now has more than 105,000 students enrolled in its tutoring programs.

Peyton attends the Oxford Classical Conversations Community. She is the daughter of Justin and Melissa McGuire and has four younger brothers. She is finishing six years in Classical Conversations and has been a Memory Master for four years.

While Peyton says history and English grammar are her favorite school activities, she also enjoys playing the piano and violin, is on a swim team, participates in her church’s children’s choir and loves to read.

In addition to the second annual National Memory Masters competition, the annual CC Capstone Cruise will also feature the fourth annual National Number Knockout finals and CC’s second high school commencement.

CC provides resources, guidance and a community for a home-school curriculum using classical education in three developmental stages: grammar, dialectic and rhetoric, and taught from a Christian worldview, according to its founder, Leigh Bortins. She says CC supports homeschooling parents by cultivating the love of learning through a Christian worldview in fellowship with other families. She believes there are three keys to a great education: classical, Christian and community.

Started in 1997 and headquartered in Southern Pines, North Carolina, CC is a family-owned company that provides services to almost 2,500 CC communities around the world.

For more information visit www.classicalconversations.com.