Berkeley Carroll students enjoyed a great deal of success at this year’s Scholastic Awards, in both the categories of Writing and Visual Art. In the Writing division, Kennedy Austin, Corbin Hopper, Carolyn Khoury, Allie Korbey, Michelle Madlansacay, Katie McDonough, and Grace Walls received Honorable Mentions. In addition, Kennedy Austin, Nina Austin, Jane Drinkard, Katrina Fuller, Courtney Gabel, Haley Gillia, Caleb Gordon, Matteo Heilbrun, Anya Katz, Mia Kellman, Allie Korbey, Julia Pike, and Leyla Wade were awarded Silver Keys. Lastly in the category of writing, students Nina Austin, Jesse Bermudez-Deane, Jane Drinkard, Haley Gillia, Anya Katz, Allie Korbey, Sarah Lenaghan, Emma Newbery, August Rosenthal, and Leyla Wade were awarded Gold Keys. August Rosenthal and Leyla Wade both received Gold Keys for their portfolios.

In the category of visual arts, students Isabella Boornazian, Olivia Churchwell, Miranda Cornell, Elise Guarna, Anya Katz, and Brittany Schreiber were all awarded Honorable Mentions. Students Isabella Boornazian, Ricky Fernandez, Elise Guarna, Ana Inciardi, Maya Littlejohn, Xinyi Liu, and Mekhia Posey received Silver Keys for their art. Elise Guarna and Mekhia Posey were specially honored with Silver Keys for their art portfolios. Lastly, students  Olivia Cucinotta, Anya Katz, and Julia Pike were awarded Gold Keys. Anya Katz was specially awarded a Gold Key for her art portfolio.

Erika Drezner, Chair of the Upper School English Department, was extremely pleased with the results of the Scholastic Awards. She added, “our students are such good writers, and I feel lucky that I get to read excellent student work all the time—but it can get a little lonely: I’m happiest when I can look up from a terrific story or poem, catch the eye of someone else who has also read and enjoyed it, and say “Wow, wasn’t that fabulous?”  And that’s exactly how I feel when our students win these  awards—finally some of our writers have the wider audience they deserve.” Art teacher Joe Poon had this to say about the awards:

“I’m always impressed by the students who muster the courage to submit their work and to have their artwork subjected to criticism and judgement in such a competitive and national awards program. This year there were quite a few portfolio submissions in drawing and painting and photography and I am happy to say that this paid off. To have at least 8 pieces that cohesively go together and to show a breadth of artistry is quite impressive. Of course, there are a lot of other deserving artists/students who don’t participate in this and I wish that more students would participate. We have a truly creative group of students who have something to say in their art and this is really the reason why I appreciate teaching at this school. I always say that the visual arts are the quiet arts where the artist spends a lot of solitary time involved with their artwork whether in the dark room or the ceramics studio or in front of a painting and really immersed in a two dimensional surface and canvas. To have the recognition from this Scholastic Awards that their work and intense dedication, students should feel that the journey of the artist is worth pursuing.”

Overall, the 2013 Scholastic Awards were a great success; they displayed the wide breadth of talent at the Berkeley Carroll School, and honored students with talents in arenas normally go unrecognized.

Links:

Writing Honorable Mentions:

http://nycscholasticawards.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/honorable-mention-writing-list.pdf

Writing Silver Keys:

http://nycscholasticawards.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/silver-key-writing-list1.pdf

Writing Gold Keys:

http://nycscholasticawards.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/gold-key-writing-list.pdf

Art Honorable Mentions:

http://nycscholasticawards.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/honorable-mention-art-list.pdf

Art Silver Keys:

http://nycscholasticawards.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/silver-key-art-list.pdf

Art Gold Keys:

http://nycscholasticawards.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/gold-key-art-list.pdf