Ten-year-old Maxine Jann, a fifth grade student at Vernon School in East Norwich, will be competing in the First Annual Mother of Pearl Women's Gymnastics National Invitational. The competition will be held on Saturday, March 20 and Sunday, March 21 at the Oyster Bay High School gymnasium.

Maxine started her gymnastic training at the age of 4 and has progressed to a Level 6 gymnast competing out of Hot Shots Gymnastics in Hicksville.

An A student and enrolled in Vernon's gifted and talented Atlantis program, Maxine still manages to fit in over 10 hours of gymnastic training each week and last year reached the NY State Level 5 competition. Her goal is to go to MIT and become a robotics engineer.

Maxine knows that MIT does not offer athletic scholarships and that she'll have to rely on her academics. She was happy to discover that MIT does have a Women's Gymnastics NCAA Division 3 team!

There will be over 225 competing gymnasts from the tri-state area plus family and friends.