Birchwood Student Earns Silver at National Scholastic Writing Awards

Aanya Lakireddy of Strongsville won the National Silver Medal in the Scholastic Writing Awards on March 23rd for her short story entitled, “Who are you?” The eighth grader’s personal essay about her grandfather and a poignant moment in the progression of his dementia had previously won a gold medal at the regional level.

Over 100,000 students submitted more than 260,000 works of art and writing to the 2022 Scholastic Awards competition this year. Works are selected for originality, technical skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision. Less than 2,000 works received a Scholastic National Medal, placing Aaanya within the top 1 percent of all submissions. Her story will be published in Scholastic's online gallery at artandwriting.org in June.
 
Birchwood’s Scholastic writers are coached by Jennifer Steward, Lorraine Tzeng, and Maysan Haydar. Steward said about Lakireddy's essay “Aanya wrote from the heart, with dignity and love, and reached acceptance about what we can and cannot change. Her memoir is not only memorable and moving, but she was also able to approach it critically as a writer. She thought carefully about what to say and how to say it before drafting her piece, then revised it over and over and over again, perhaps ten times over. This award is such validation of her maturation as a writer.”
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