Anonymous wrote:The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards (http://www.artandwriting.org/who-we-are/) is notably the country's premiere competition to recognize national excellence by middle and high school students (gr. 7-12) in the areas of Art and Writing. There are 29 sub-categories in Art and Writing (e.g. Photography in Art, Screenplay in Writing). Each year the competition receives approximately 320,000 original submissions from middle and high school students across the country. The first round of the competition awards Gold, Silver, and Bronze Keys in each sub-category by geographic region. The Gold Key recipients, already a notable honor, then go on to the National round of the competition where only a small subset of the Gold Key recipients (I believe around 1,000-1,200 students) are awarded a National Gold or Silver Medal. There are several Scholastic Gold Medal and Silver Medal winners from the DC metro area in both Art and Writing this year.
Here is a list of just this year's Gold Key awards. These private schools may have many more awards at the Silver and Bronze Key levels, but a comprehensive list has not been published at the local level yet.
http://www.artandwriting.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/2018-Gold-Key-Recipients.pdf
Deal Middle School - 1
Duke Ellington School of the Arts - 5
CHEC Bell High School - 1
Georgetown Day School - 15
Georgetown Visitation Prep School - 2
Lab School of Washington - 1
Lowell School - 4
Maret School - 16
National Cathedral School - 11
School Without Walls - 1
Sidwell Friends School - 11
St. Albans School - 2
Washington International School - 1
Washington Latin Public Charter School - 1
Anonymous wrote:Anyone know how competitive these are? Seems like there are tens of thousands of winners, so is it really all that prestigious?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I am laughing because my child received a Gold Key Award and I didn’t know DC had submitted a piece.
Lol.
- public school parent
Years ago, when my child submitted and won several awards, I believe that a parent and a teacher were still required to sign off on a submission. But perhaps that was only after a candidate advanced to the national level of the competition.
Congratulations, by the way, in your child's achievement!
Anonymous wrote:I don't think it is that the school doesn't emphasize writing; it does (Writer-in-Residence; literary magazine; Headmaster is a writer, etc.). I just don't think Upper School has promoted this competition. My son does Visual Arts and he said they haven't. I will make sure he enters next year.
Anonymous wrote:I am laughing because my child received a Gold Key Award and I didn’t know DC had submitted a piece.
Lol.
- public school parent
Anonymous wrote:Thank you. DC came across it through a summer writing workshop they participated in during middle school. In high school DC participated in the Iowa Young Writers program. That was amazing!