The Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl is a reading competition for students in grades four through twelve.  It was created by Mrs. Helen Ruffin, a libary media specialist from DeKalb County who wanted to instill the love of reading in young people.  Her vision was to have teams comprised of students from different schools across the state, compete to test their knowledge of selected books.  She created a reading competition in game format, called the Reading Bowl, using the 20 titles from the current year's Georgia Books Award Nominees List.  IHM competes in the Middle School division and is the only Catholic school respresented in the competition.