After receiving regional gold medals in the Scholastic Writing Awards Contest, sophomores Matt Frischer and Terence Huang have now received national recognition for their personal narratives.
“I really had no idea how to react. I was in Germany at the time [I found out], over spring break, and when I saw the email they sent me, I sort of just let it sit there in my inbox for a week, not entirely sure if I should feel excited or proud or humble or what,” Huang said.
Huang received a gold medal at the national level for his essay while Frischer received a national silver medal.
“I thought it was an honor and it was cool that the amount of time I spent on the essay paid off,” Frischer said.
English teacher Mr. Jason Lovera began having his students submit their essays to the contest two years ago. Last year he had one student receive a regional gold medal and nine students receive other regional recognition. This year was the first year his students were recognized nationally.
“Maybe they’ve never really thought of what they could do with their writing, but [the contest] shows that they could do something outside of school,” Lovera said. “I would hope it would encourage them to think about writing as more than just writing for their English class. That’s what we need to move beyond, because it’s more than that.”
Huang’s award-winning essay centers on his struggle with the temptation of stealing an Ipod out of an open claw machine at an arcade.
“I started off not really having a clue what I was going to write about, since I personally thought my life wasn’t anything particularly extraordinary. But then, I realized that for people to really learn something, they need only be pushed beyond their comfort zone. So I chose a particularly uncomfortable moment in my life to write about,” Huang said.
Lovera, who says personal narratives must show genuine voice and represent who you truly are, credits the imagery Huang used to describe his struggle as a key component of the essay’s success.
“One of the standout things in Terence’s essay was how the imagery demonstrated Terence’s character,” Lovera said. “His willingness to be honest and genuine in terms of his reflection on his character through the imagery and through the descriptions was very strong.”
Frischer, a cross country runner, wrote about preparing for his first half-marathon. He used a flashback format, in which he went back and forth between each mile he ran and previous events.
“I think what was really cool about Matt’s [essay] was the style, the pacing of the narrative and how you felt like you were running,” Lovera said.
Frischer saw his personal essay as a way to express how he was able to overcome something he thought was impossible.
“It was overcoming something you never thought you could do–not something other people told you you couldn’t do but something you yourself thought you couldn’t do,” Frischer said.
Both Frischer and Huang have been invited to the National Awards Ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York on May 31, 2013. Although Frischer cannot attend, Huang hopes to be able to go.
“If I do get to go, I’m really looking forward to seeing what other people wrote, like in the diversity of others’ styles, and just being able to meet students from across the US and learn their stories,” Huang said.
