Artists, Writers Win Scholastic National Prizes

Four Exonians earned national medals from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, a prestigious annual competition juried by creative professionals. On March 14, national organization Alliance for Young Artists & Writers announced senior Carissa Chen as one of sixteen recipients, selected from high school seniors across the nation, of the Gold Medal Portfolio of the 2017 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. This award is the program’s highest national honor, granting winners a $10,000 scholarship and special scholarships provided by other foundations and organizations. Senior Melissa Lu won the New York Life Foundation award, in addition to a Gold Medal, which provides $1,000 scholarships to writers “whose work exemplifies how the arts can act as a positive outlet to cope with loss and death.” Senior Ali Hassani also received a Gold Medal in the Flash Fiction category and senior Athena Gerasoulis received a Silver Key for her Writing Portfolio.

"I feel really lucky and grateful. Exeter’s English and history departments are incredible and they taught me so much about writing—the honor should belong to them."

This year’s panel of judges consisted of distinguished writers and artists such as Edwidge Dandicat, Gerald Padilla and Baratunde Thurston. Representatives from reputable organizations including the New York Public Library, The New York Times and The Seattle Times also played a key role in the adjudication process. According to Virginia McEnerney, the executive director of The Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, submissions were “blindly adjudicated based on three core values: originality, technical skill and the emergence of personal voice or vision.” The Gold Medal Portfolio is the highest achievement a participant can earn in the competition, and to do so, McEnerney noted, means “a student has created a cohesive body of work and developed formidable artistic and literary skills.”For Hassani, his prize-winning essay, “Windowpane,” was the first and only piece he has submitted to Scholastic. Though never particularly passionate about creative writing, Hassani was inspired by a childhood encounter, from age seven, during which he mistook the deformities on a girl’s body for butterflies. Almost ten years later, he remembered and reflected on the experience, realizing that the bruises were from domestic abuse. With clear, succinct prose, he turned the story into flash fiction. “I never considered creative writing seriously before,” he said, adding that his views were changing as he “experimented with fiction and poetry and other genres.”Chen submitted a portfolio of writing, including poetry, historical essays, fiction essays and memoirs that were written over the course of the last two years. Her works were inspired by her own experiences, her history and the world around her. One poem, Idyll, drew from her time spent in small town America and from the Academy’s recent discussions of racial tensions. Another, Musings, was a Fibonacci poem, inspired by Exeter math, science and philosophy classes. McEnerney quoted national jurors who lauded Chen’s collection of “soaring poetry and complex, methodical essays.” Chen attributed her success to her peers and teachers. “I feel really lucky and grateful. Exeter’s English and history departments are incredible and they taught me so much about writing—the honor should belong to them,” she said.Lu also reflected on her personal experiences, noting that her fall term English instructor, Patricia Burke, played a significant role in her submissions. “You know a class is amazing when the emotions wrap you and something inside you just clicks with the words and the way they fit and sound together,” she said.Lu submitted two pieces, Day and Night by the Old Oak and Rock-Paper-Scissors. In her first work, she remembered her best friend who passed away two years ago in a car accident. In her second piece, she commented on the social and political landscape of this country, reflecting on several recent national events such as the Sandy Hook Shooting and the Boston Marathon Bombing. “They were complex and difficult moments of our country’s past and present that had been explored in many ways, profound and deep, but I wanted to talk about them as I saw them as a kid, growing up, this was my childhood,” she said. Lu received the New York Life Award and Scholarship and the American Voices Medal, respectively.Gerasoulis, who has been submitting pieces since she was in 7th grade, submitted a portfolio of works, ranging from short stories and personal memoirs to poetry, titled For My Future Daughter. The pieces centered around the wonderful and terrifying events during the development of her femininity. “I took a lot of memories from my own experience growing up, and translated all these emotions I started to feel since a young age into pages and pages of work. I observed the women around me, who are all huge inspirations to me,” she said.Upon receiving news of her students’ achievements, English Instructor Patricia Burke-Hickey, who taught both Lu and Gerasoulis, was thrilled. “Both Melissa and Athena are talented writers and these honors are well deserved,” she said, noting that Gerasoulis mastered a highly lyrical prose while Lu wrote in a sophisticated, rhythmic manner. From the beginning, Burke was impressed by how these students had internalized “the power of clarity and concision,” and were adept at “pacing readers with sentences of varying lengths and styles.”Similarly, English Instructor Elizabeth Dean, who taught Hassani’s senior winter elective, observed that his writing was “as introspective as it was aware of and engaged with the world at large.” His achievements in the competition, and in creative writing in general, did not come as a surprise, given his specialty in focused and analytical reading.Grateful for the wonderful opportunity to share her works and have them recognized, Gerasoulis highly recommended the Scholastics competition to all aspiring writers, with the hopes that they write about what is true to their heart. “Write about things that are important to you, write about things that hurt you, write your heart or soul or about your hair or flowers. It doesn’t need to necessarily be profound and interesting and intended for competition. My firm belief is that any attempt at creativity is one that should be celebrated,” she said.