Speyer Eighth Graders Bring Home Multiple Scholastic Art & Writing Awards!
The Scholastic Award Winners were announced recently and once again, our Speyer eighth graders brought home multiple awards! The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards were founded in 1923 and, for nearly a century, have inspired bold ideas in creative teens throughout the country. These awards are presented by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to identify students with exceptional artistic and literary talent and present their remarkable work to the world. Students across the U.S. entered nearly 320,000 original works in 2020 in 28 different categories of art and writing.
This year, we had three Speyer students win multiple awards:
Marialba G. won a Gold Key for her personal essay "El Subjuntivo".
Felix G. won a Gold Key for his essay "5 Words, 53 Letters". He also earned an honorable mention for another essay, "High Tide", and one more honorable mention for his photograph, "Lone Log".
Zoe R. also won three awards. She won two Gold Keys: one for her essay "Surviving Together" and another for her dramatic script, "Yes, Sir". She also earned an honorable mention for her poem "Handle with Care/The Windows of 2020".
Not only are these are wonderful awards, there is something else to consider: our students compete in the 13-18 age group. They are going up against thousands of high schoolers from around the region and the judging is anonymous. There is no name, grade, or school attached to the entry, so our students are winning on merit. It is extremely impressive that Speyer eighth graders do so well in this esteemed competition.
We also want to give shout-outs to the faculty that have supported our students in this competition. Special thanks to Rod Alonzo, who spearheaded the drive to get Speyer students to enter this competition en masse and his actions have been bearing fruit for three years now and continue to do so, as well as Matt Thoren who currently works with the students during their eighth grade year and organizes them and their submissions. In addition, high-fives to Dorianne Steele, Kimberly Schwab, and Paul Deards, as the works submitted by our students were developed in their classes, with assignments that resulted in interesting, unique pieces. This allowed our students have an abundance of writing to potentially select when they begin contemplating entries for this competition. And finally, one more big thanks to Head of Middle School Michelle Cristella who has been a huge supporter of our writers and artists as they compete for these awards!
Congrats to our three Scholastic Award winners!