Upper School Writers Earn 36 Scholastic Writing Awards

Thirty Ellis students in grades 10–12 were recognized in the 2023 regional Scholastic Writing Awards. The official award ceremony honoring their achievements will take place at Point Park University on Saturday, February 25, 2023.
Entries submitted by Ellis students for award consideration included personal essays, memoirs, and critical essays on a diverse array of topics, including identity and cultural assimilation, the inequitable treatment of women through history, harmful beauty standards, prison art, and literary analyses of texts ranging from horror films to classic fiction.

“The Scholastic Writing Awards and the regional ceremony that recognizes its winners give students a chance to expand the audience for their compositions, sharing their authentic insights into any number of subjects with personal meaning to them,” says Dr. Anna Redcay, Ellis English Department Chair. “I’m continually impressed that our Ellisan writers infuse their formal school assignments with arguments, research, and perceptions reflective of their lived experiences and values.”

In total, Ellis students earned 12 Gold Key awards, 14 Silver Key awards, and 10 honorable mentions. All Gold Key winners will be considered for national awards, including medals and scholarships.

Senior Katriel Camp also received an American Voices nomination for her Gold Key-winning critical essay, entitled The Dilemma of Assimilation: What it Means to Make Your Name “American.” American Voices nominations recognize pieces of writing that display an original, authentic voice and are granted to five students within each regional program. One nominee from each region will be selected for an American Voices Award by a national panel of jurors.

“I am honored to have received the Scholastic Gold Key Award and American Voices Award nomination, and to have the opportunity to represent Ellis,” says Katriel. “My essay is about the difficulties immigrants have faced, both during the waves of Ellis Island immigration and in modern society with maintaining their culture through keeping their birth name, or opting to change it to fit American norms. I am so appreciative to my teachers here at Ellis for helping me grow as a writer and getting me to the place I am in today. I would encourage students to consider submitting to the Scholastic Awards in the future!"

Now in its 100th year, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is the nation’s longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens, celebrating the work of students in grades 7–12 in 28 categories of art and writing. 

The full list of Ellis students who received 2023 Scholastic Writing Awards is included below:

Grace Boyer
Class of 2023
Gold Key
Personal Essay & Memoir
Imposter Syndrome in Soba
Elyse Brennan
Class of 2025
Gold Key
Critical Essay
Spring in Town
Adah Brownlee
Class of 2023
Gold Key
Personal Essay & Memoir
Looking from Above
Cassidy Burns
Class of 2023
Gold Key
Personal Essay & Memoir
How the Pain In My Sole Led to Growth Within My Soul
Katriel Camp
Class of 2023
Gold Key, American Voices Nominee
Critical Essay
The Dilemma of Assimilation: What it Means to Make Your Name “American”
Maya Earnest-Hawken
Class of 2025
Honorable Mention
Critical Essay
The Miseducation of Women and its Consequences
Ella Greenfield
Class of 2025
Silver Key
Critical Essay
The Inequality of Education Between Women and Men
Tessa Gumberg
Class of 2025
Gold Key
Critical Essay
The Irrational are Raising our Children!
Hannah Habershaw
Class of 2024
Silver Key
Critical Essay
The Miracle Pill
Lizzie Hohm
Class of 2025
Silver Key
Critical Essay
Irrationality Causes Ruined Marriages
Abby Hummert
Class of 2023
Silver Key
Critical Essay
Life in a Bottle: Cultural Conditioning versus Freedom in Brave New World
Abby Hummert
Class of 2023
Honorable Mention
Personal Essay & Memoir
The 10,000 Lives of Abby Hummert
Athena Iverson
Class of 2023
Silver Key
Critical Essay
Injustice in America: Underscoring Our District Lines
Athena Iverson
Class of 2023
Honorable Mention
Critical Essay
Queen Elizabeth I: Stronger than Portrayed
Athena Iverson
Class of 2023
Honorable Mention
Personal Essay & Memoir
All Softball Players are Gay
Sophia Kaulen
Class of 2025
Honorable Mention
Critical Essay
The Subjugation of Women Throughout History
Francesca LaRoche
Class of 2024
Silver Key
Critical Essay
Hester’s Rebellion Influenced by the Scarlet Letter
Sabrina Lateef
Class of 2023
Honorable Mention
Critical Essay
Mary Shelley’s Rejection of Romantic Ideas Valuing the Isolation of the Individual
Helen Lee
Class of 2025
Honorable Mention
Critical Essay
Women; Society's Dolls
Kaelin Lokar
Class of 2023
Silver Key
Critical Essay
How Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Rejects and Conforms to the Romantic Ideal of Isolation: Seclusion from Others vs. Solitude in One’s Personal Refuge
Madeleine Mocker
Class of 2025
Silver Key
Critical Essay
Money and Marriage: Women’s Independence in A Doll’s House and Pride and Prejudice
Sophia Musahl
Class of 2023
Silver Key
Personal Essay & Memoir
I Want to Be on TV
Aubrey O'Toole
Class of 2025
Gold Key
Critical Essay
The Limit of Women’s Potential
Sarina Pretter
Class of 2024
Silver Key
Critical Essay
The True Impact of Public Shaming
Amelia Reines
Class of 2023
Silver Key
Personal Essay & Memoir
Hyperfemininity: A Fat Woman’s Greatest Weapon
Amelia Reines
Class of 2023
Silver Key
Personal Essay & Memoir
The Storm Is Passing Over
Trinity Sims
Class of 2023
Gold Key
Personal Essay & Memoir
Does my Body Provoke You?
Ella Sokulski
Class of 2023
Silver Key
Critical Essay
The Reality of Prison Art
Lucia Soluri
Class of 2023
Gold Key
Critical Essay
“A Godlike Science:” Language and the Nature of Isolation in Frankenstein
Lucia Soluri
Class of 2023
Gold Key
Critical Essay
Southern Women and the Sacrifice of Selfhood in Kate Chopin’s Realistic Fiction
Lucia Soluri
Class of 2023
Silver Key
Critical Essay
Freedom and the Human Condition in Brave New World
Taelor Spencer
Class of 2025
Honorable Mention
Critical Essay
Self Empowerment
Gabriella Tucker
Class of 2025
Honorable Mention
Critical Essay
Marriage in the 18th and 19th Centuries
EJ Warman
Class of 2023
Gold Key
Critical Essay
Queer-Coded Horror Characters and Gender Envy
Esmé Warman
Class of 2025
Gold Key
Critical Essay
How Henrik Ibsen and Mary Wollstonecraft Criticize Separate Spheres
Sarai Williams
Class of 2025
Honorable Mention
Critical Essay
Marital Contentment

UPDATE:
Following the February 2023 award ceremony in Pittsburgh, three Ellis students were honored with additional Scholastic Writing Awards at the national level later in the spring. Please join us in congratulating Grace Boyer, Class of 2023, Tessa Gumberg, Class of 2025, and Esmé Warman, Class of 2025, on their writing achievements.

Grace Boyer
Class of 2023
Silver Medal - National Award
Personal Essay & Memoir
Imposter Syndrome in Soba
Tessa Gumberg
Class of 2025
Silver Medal - National Award
Critical Essay
The Irrational are Raising our Children!
Esmé Warman
Class of 2025
Silver Medal - National Award
Critical Essay
How Henrik Ibsen and Mary Wollstonecraft Criticize Separate Spheres
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