Sanford Writers Recognized with Scholastic Writing Awards

The Scholastic Writing Awards are the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens. Student work is first judged at the regional level, where entries may earn Gold Key, Silver Key, or Honorable Mention distinctions. Gold Key works advance to national adjudication and may receive national medals or scholarship awards. Only 17 Gold Keys were awarded across Delaware this year (4% of all Scholastic submissions), and Sanford claimed 5 of them - our students earned about 30% of the total Gold Keys awarded!

Among the program's most prestigious honors are the American Voices, which recognize works that reflect exceptional regional perspectives and personal voice. Jurors from each region may nominate up to five works for American Voices consideration, making the honor highly selective. Sanford students earned two of these five statewide American Voices nominations, an extraordinary achievement.

“​We are incredibly proud of our students and the powerful, original voices they continue to develop and share,” said Mrs. Elise Burke Parcha, Writing Center and Publications Coordinator, who led this year’s Scholastic Writing Awards submissions. “To have over 30 pieces recognized by Scholastic is a testament not only to our students’ talent and courage, but also to our English department's commitment to fostering reflective, ambitious, and deeply personal writing. These honors reflect the seriousness with which our students engage with language, ideas, and the world around them, and we are thrilled (but not surprised) to see their work honored at such a high level.”

Ada Henry '26
Silver Key For My Sister (Poetry)
Silver Key Painting the Stage Black on the Last Night Before Tech, When We Are Seventeen and Alone in the Building (Poetry)

Honorable Mention The Farmer’s Daughter (Poetry)

Rachel Durbano '26
Silver Key Cruciverbalist (Personal Essay & Memoir)
Silver Key They Say Junior Year is Hard (Poetry)
Silver Key God or Gilead: The Dystopian Nightmare America Faces (Critical Essay)
Honorable Mention Should Americans be Bilingual? Oui (Critical Essay)
Honorable Mention Through the Looking Glass: How Mirror Life Could Kill Us All (Journalism)

 

Breanna Bowers '26
Silver Key Spinning Webs (Personal Essay & Memoir)

 

Isabella Atwood '26
Gold Key My Pink Bunny (Personal Essay & Memoir)

Silver Key Bad Writer (Personal Essay & Memoir)

 

Guiseppe DiUbaldo '26
Silver Key The Bar In My Chest (Personal Essay & Memoir)

 

Camille Opher '26
Honorable Mention Martyr (Poetry)
Honorable Mention Snowfall (Poetry)

 

Katherine McCrea '27
Gold Key, American Voices Nominee Grief (Poetry)
Honorable Mention Beginnings (Poetry)

 

Liv Lefkon '27
Gold Key, American Voices Nominee Ignorance Is Privilege (Critical Essay)

Silver Key Rush Rather Than Relief (Personal Essay & Memoir)

Neha Khan '27
Gold Key Beauty 101 (Critical Essay)

Honorable Mention The Lost Almanac (Poetry)
Honorable Mention A Million Meaningless Words (Personal Essay & Memoir)

 

Sofia Nardo '27
Silver Key The Art in Language: What Makes Language an Art? (Critical Essay)
Silver Key The Sun Wasn’t Always This Sharp (Personal Essay & Memoir)

 

Charlotte McLeod '27
Honorable Mention One More Week (Personal Essay & Memoir)
Honorable Mention The Dictionary Sucks and I Am Independent (In My Own Terms) (Personal Essay & Memoir)

 

Morgan Kalish '27
Honorable Mention The Ache of Familiar Things (Critical Essay)
Honorable Mention A Few Words, Yet Millions of Memories (Personal Essay & Memoir)

 

Honorable Mention The Sail That Should Have Broken Us (Personal Essay & Memoir)

Silver Key How Should Love Feel? (Poetry)

 

Annabelle Wei '28
Honorable Mention Lost in a Dirge (Poetry)
Honorable Mention Music Without a Dirge (Poetry)

 

Claire Fang '28
Silver Key Prioritize: A “Coming-To” Story (Personal Essay & Memoir)

Honorable Mention 520° (Poetry)

Nora Xu '29
Gold Key A Distant Devotion (Poetry)