Congratulations to Lansing High School senior, Madeline Clark, for being named a Scholastic Art & Writing Awards National Medalist!
Lansing High School senior, Madeline Clark, recently received a National Gold Medal for a critical essay she submitted to the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards earlier this school year. Her award winning piece explored the ethics of solitary confinement.
"I was inspired to pursue this topic after reading Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson," said Madeline. "Researching injustices within America's justice system has always interested me, and the novel opened my eyes to the importance of prison reform within the nation."
Madeline discovered the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition while searching for scholarships for aspiring authors. Scholastic Art & Writing Awards recognizes "young artists and writers, filmmakers and photographers, poets and sculptors, video game artists and science fiction writers" and are presented by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. The Alliance's mission is "to identify students with exceptional artistic and literary talent and present their remarkable work to the world through the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards." For more information about the program, click here.
This year, more than 110,000 students submitted nearly 320,000 pieces. Madeline submitted several works and had the following five works recognized at the Regional level:
- "When Did I Know?" - Personal Essay & Memoir - Received a Silver Key Award
- "Ethics of Solitary Confinement Research Essay" - Critical Essay - Received a Gold Key Award
- "Closure" - Poetry - Received an Honorable Mention
- "Blue Light" - Poetry - Received an Honorable Mention
- "My Sins" - Poetry - Received a Silver Key Award
All works that receive a "Gold Key" Award at the Regional level are automatically advanced to the national level of judging in New York City, where they are judged by "an impressive panel of creative–industry experts to receive National Medals, including Gold Medals, Silver Medals, American Voices & Visions Medals, Gold Medal and Silver with Distinction Portfolio Medals, and Special Achievement Awards."
Only 3,000 works received a National Medal in 2020, and Madeline's critical essay was one of them, placing her in the top 1% of all submissions!
She joins notable Scholastic Award winners such as Tschabalala Self, Stephen King, Kay WalkingStick, Charles White, Joyce Carol Oates, and Andy Warhol. Each of these notable artists won Scholastic Awards when they were teens. She was invited to be recognized at the National Ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City in June. Unfortunately, due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year's ceremony was cancelled.
Madeline will be attending the University of Kansas next fall and plans on majoring in English, with the intention to become a secondary English teacher.