Sophia Tareen's Silver Key award-winning photograph
Winners of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards were announced on Friday, February 3. All five of Baldwin’s Upper School student contributors – Hannah Bao ’13, Randi Brown ’12, Emily Clark ’14, Lauren Cooper ’12, and Sophia Tareen ’13, received Gold and Silver Key awards for select works, carrying on the legacy of visual and literary giants like Joyce Carol Oates and Robert Redford.
Emily Clark nabbed a Gold Key award – a distinction bestowed upon only 5% of regional submissions – for her Poetry Portfolio, and a Silver Key award for a short fiction entry entitled, A Testimony of an Arsonist. Lauren Cooper won a Gold Key award and an American Voices Nomination – considered Best in Category for the region and top 5 nationally – for her Poetry Portfolio. In addition, she received the Silver Key award for a personal essay/memoir entitled Solo, and an Honorable Mention for a Flash Fiction submission entitled Hope. Hannah Bao snagged a Gold Key award for a painting she submitted entitled Pray for Peace.
Randi Brown won a Silver Key award for her collection of poems, while Sophia Tareen was awarded a Silver Key for a telling photograph she snapped of a young boy while traveling abroad in Brazil.
As Gold Key award winners, Clark and Copper will move on to the national judging later this month in New York City, where their works will be reviewed by a panel of internationally renowned writers. An awards ceremony will be held at the University of the Arts on Saturday, April 14 to honor all Gold Key recipients, followed by a reception to showcase their tremendous creative achievements.
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards has celebrated the creative talents of young artists and writers in grades 7-12 since its 1923 founding, and has given millions of students the opportunity to earn scholarships or become published authors.
Read Lauren Cooper’s Gold Key award-winning poem:
Preserve.
We walked down the path as dark came into the sky.
The dirt sank slightly from weight of me, from the weight of you.
Three sets of footprints, grass and night.
The cold wind lifted my hair off my shoulders,
Turned my lips numb and your hands red.
We were looking for the pond.
We were looking for the wild.
We were looking for ours.
Ended up on a hill overlooking lit up
houses
No stars but thousands of lights.
We turned away, turned our faces back the way we had come,
Looking for the pond,
Feeling the chill in the night air.
The pond threatened to crack under your weight as we stood back,
Both silently wondering if this was something to regret.
You turned to us and smiled. Sliding backwards on belief.
The sky remained black,
The air remained cold,
Your hands red and my lips numb,
As we walked on water.
– Diane Senior, US English Teacher
Congratulations to the Baldwin students, who engage and succeed in creative ventures. Many thanks for sharing your talent with others, keep up the great work. Baldwin is a powerhouse in all aspects of education for girls.