2011 DC Scholastic Gold Key Winners
Nathan Ammons
For the 2011 Scholastic Writing Awards, Nathan won a regional Gold Key for his science fiction piece, “Android Winter.”
Olivia August
For the 2011 Scholastic Awards, Olivia won a regional Gold Key and a national Silver Medal for her short story, “My Mistress First.”
Luisa Banchoff
Luisa has lived most of her 15 years in Arlington, Virginia, with two years of residency in Bonn, Germany interspersed throughout. Among her favorite activities are reading novels and poetry, attempting to write novels and poetry, and making memories with her best friend, Abigail. She is the online editor for her high school newspaper and a poetry editor for the literary magazine. Most of her poetry evolves from one or two lines that make their way through her subconscious and eventually to the page. For the 2011 Scholastic Writing Awards, Luisa won a regional Gold Key and a national Gold Medal for her poems, “Nine Things She Thought About Before She Jumped,” and “Coda.”
Maria Brescia-Weiler
For the 2011 Scholastic Writing Awards, Maria won a regional Gold Key and a national Gold Medal for her essay, “Memoir in Full Color.”
Sarah Cooke
Sarah Cooke lives in a suburb of Washington, DC, but prefers to spend time in her head, where things are a bit more exciting. She enjoys drinking tea and watching people through sunglasses. For the 2011 Scholastic Writing Awards, Sarah won a regional Gold Key and was an American Voice Nominee for her short story, “Wings.”
See works by Sarah
Preston Cooper
Preston Cooper is a senior in Washington, DC. He enjoys traveling, with his recent trip to Bavaria serving as the inspiration for the play included in this anthology. In his spare time, Preston enjoys writing, reading, acting, singing, and walking. He lives in Chevy Chase, MD. He is a student at Writopia Lab DC. For the Scholastic Writing Awards, Preston won regional Gold Key for his senior portfolio.
Jennifer Davis
Jennifer Davis was born in Princeton, New Jersey in 1993 but moved to Arlington, Virginia in 2004. She is a 17-year-old high school senior and has been enrolled in photography since she was a freshman. She has won a gold key for her photography in 2010 and a gold and silver key for her creative writing in 2011. She aspires to be either an art photographer or a photojournalist and plans to enroll in university in fall of 2011. Her preferred photography style is fashion/art, but she practices many art forms: painting, drawing, creative writing, and photography. The focus of her art is to express the emotions of others, and to capture glimpses and elements of the unconscious and conscious human psyche. For the 2011 Scholastic Writing Awards, Jennifer won a regional Gold Key for her poem, “In the Presence of Absence.”
Samantha DeStefano
Samantha DeStefano is a sophomore in high school. She was born in New Jersey and moved to Montgomery County, Maryland at the age of three. She enjoys science, reading, and writing. She has been playing cello for the past six years and is currently first chair in the philharmonia in PVYO. She also enjoys theater, art, and New York City. For the 2011 Scholastic Writing Awards, Samantha won a regional Gold Key for her poems, “Vision of A Young Concertmaster,” “Ode to the Moon,” “The Singular Land,” “An educated council said to me,” and “A cat walked down the beach.”
Rebecca Epstein-Boley
Rebecca Epstein-Boley is 14 years old. She is in the 8th grade and is seeking to take over the world. She loves soccer, photography, and playing the French horn. She’s a student at Writopia Lab DC. For 2011 the Scholastic Writing Awards, Rebecca won a regional Gold Key for her short story, “The White Cool Embers.”
Rachel Kim
Rachel Kim has been writing for her own pleasure since she was in kindergarten. Besides writing, she also plays golf on her school’s team and is a co-captain. She is also a co-captain for the Forensics/Speech team and she competes in the Poetry/Prose category. For the 2011 Scholastic Writing Awards, Rachel won a regional Gold Key and a national Silver Medal for her poem, “Motherhater.”
Sofia Laguarda
Sofia is a student at Writopia Lab DC. For the 2011 Scholastic Writing Awards, she won regional Gold Keys for her short stories, “Daisy” and “A Life Apart.” For the latter, she also received a national Gold Medal and was an American Voices Nominee.
See works by Sofia
Lillie Lainoff
Lillie Lainoff is a sophmore in Washington D.C. She is a nationally ranked saber fencer, and loves to act. She is so excited to have so many opportunities, including getting published on the Writopia website. Her memoir, “Fighting Back,” was inspired by her experience of having a blood and heart disorder, and fencing through it. For the 2011 Scholastic Writing Awards, she won a regional Gold Key and a national Gold Medal for “Fighting Back.”
Nayan Lamba
Nayan Lamba has enjoyed writing short stories in her free time for the past several years. Many of her stories are inspired by the events and people around her, and she often infuses her writing with her culture. Her favorite novels are My Antonia, Pride and Prejudice, and the Scarlet Letter. She hopes to continue growing as a writer in college. For the 2011 Scholastic Awards, Nayan won a regional Gold Key for her persuasive piece, “The Latest Scoop.”
Michael Ledecky
Michael Ledecky of Bethesda, Maryland is a Junior and is Managing Editor of the school’s newspaper, The Aquilian. Michael was the recipient of the school’s Paul Burke Award for outstanding contribution in journalism, and was a member of the 2010 class of the prestigious Washington Post Young Journalist Digital Media workshop. He is also a graduate of the Ambassadorship training program of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum where he has written scripts and filmed videos for the museum’s programs including a recently launched program called “Confront The Hate”. Michael is a competitive year-round swimmer and a three-time varsity letterman for Gonzaga’s swim team, and has been named a Potomac Valley Swimming Scholar-Athlete. In addition, Michael is a member of the National Honor Society, the National Scholastic Press Association Honor Roll, and has sung in Gonzaga’s Select Choir. For the 2011 Scholastic Awards, Michael won a regional Gold Key for his humor piece, “State of the Union 2176.”
Grace McNamee
Grace McNamee has been writing short stories since she was 6. She’s
studied at Writopia, Interlochen Arts Academy, and the Iowa Young
Writers’ Studio at the University of Iowa. Her poems and stories have
been published in Highlights for Children, Stone Soup, and Best Teen
Writing of 2008. Grace has won medals in the Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards since her freshman year in high school and will receive two silver medals at Carnegie Hall in June. Grace will graduate high school this spring and plans to attend university to study journalism, English, and creative writing. She is a student at Writopia Lab DC. For the 2011 Scholastic Writing Awards, Grace won regional Gold Keys and national Silver Medals for her portfolio and her story, “Just Between Us.” She also won a regional Gold Key and was the American Voice Nominee for her short story, “Surfacing.”
Andrea Miriviss
Andrea is a senior and spends 90 percent of her time working on her school newspaper, The Observer. She has spent the past five summers at writing workshops (first at Interlochen Arts Camp and then at UVa Young Writers Workshop.) Her favorite author is James Joyce and, although she can barely understand half of what he writes, she tries to put his spirit into her own writing. For the 2011 Scholastic Awards, Andrea won a regional Gold Key and a national Gold Medal for her short story, “The Unfinished Notebook of Sid Vicious Ftizwilliam.”
Katherine Mitchell
For the 2011 Scholastic Writing Awards, Katherine won a regional Goldy Key and a national Silver Medal for her Portfolio.
See works by Katherine
Gillian Page
Gillian Page is 12 years old and attends 7th grade. She likes writing and reading (but not typing.) When she grows up, she will be a yoga instructor / scientist / author / gardener/ world traveler, and thinks John Quincy Adams is way better than Calvin Coolidge. She’ll come to Sofia’s party, and is a proud Hufflepuff. Go badgers! Gillian is a student at Writopia Lab DC. For the 2011 Scholastic Writing Awards, Gillian won a regional Gold Key and was an American Voice Nominee for her short story, “Catching Minnows.”
Ruthie Prillaman
Ruthie Prillaman is 16 years old and hails from Potomac, Maryland. Most of the time, she ends up rescuing bits of poems that she’d scribbled in the margins of her school notebooks while her teachers weren’t looking. She admires writers like Billy Collins and Tom Stoppard and aspires to be a playwright one day. For the 2011 Scholastic Awards, Ruthie won a regional Gold Key and a national Silver Medal for her poems, “Riderless,” “Passagio,” and “Behold the Man.”
Annie Rosenthal
Annie Rosenthal is almost 13 years old. She is going into 8th grade at Alice Deal Middle School. The idea for her story came from a photo of two little girls on bikes, which brought forth her own memories of playing in the alleys on summer evenings. Like God, she enjoys Sprite and observing people. She also loves music and dancing of all kinds. She aspires to be a journalist and to travel all over the world, although when she was little she was sure she would be a garbage man. Annie is a student at Writopia Lab DC. For the 2011 Scholastic Writing Awards, Annie won a regional Gold Key and a national Silver Medal for her short story, “Let There Be Sprite.”
Mary Salmonsen
Mary Salmonsen has lived the greater part of her life in Olney, Maryland, except for those times when she is not in Olney, namely when she is school in Bethesda, where she is a senior. She enjoys writing, wanton stimulation of the imagination that will one day become writing, reading anything she can get her hands on, doodling, and occasional moments of incomprehensible happiness. “Bears” was written as an examination not only of the beauty of diversity, but its ability to survive the hardships thrown its way. For the 2011 Scholastic Writing Awards, Mary won a Gold Key and an American Voices Medal for her short story, “Bears.”
Isaac Stanley-Becker
In addition to his writing, Isaac is a nationally ranked high school policy debater. He competes in tournaments throughout the country all during the school year, and his team is ranked 5th in the nation. He is also very involved in journalism and theater at school. His essay on the crisis in Korea emerged from research he had done for debate and was published as an editorial in the school paper, the Augur Bit. A native of Chicago, who moved to DC last year, he won a state-wide award in 2008 for an essay on the First Amendment from the Chicago Tribune/Anti-Defamation League. He is also very involved with the DC chapter of the ACLU. For the 2011 Scholastic Writing Awards, Isaac won regional Gold Keys for Journalism for “Anti-Gay Bullying and the Dilemma of a LGBT High School” and “More Than a War Game: Why Violence on the Korean Peninsula Should Matter to Us.” In addition, he won won a national Gold Medal for the former and a national Silver Medal for the latter.
