by Linden O’Brien-Williams

A recent presentation at STA draws students’ interest in submitting work to the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition. The 91-year running competition encourages students all across the United States to submit their work, with 28 categories ranging from dramatic script to video games.

In 2014, Scholastic received 250,000 submissions, according to the organization’s website. Out of those 250,000, nearly 70,000 works were recognized with either regional or national awards. Two STA students, alumna Emily Taylor and sophomore Sarah Ferron received awards in the 2014 competition.

The requirements for entering are simple: a competitor must be in grade 7 through 12. To register, they go online and sign up through the website. As far as recognition, students’ work can be featured in galleries, various publications, or awarded with scholarships.

Although there have been consistent submissions from STA over the years, this year is the first that a presentation has been given to encourage students to submit, according to English teacher Dianne Hirner. UMKC Greater Kansas City Writing Project representative Katie Kline spoke to students Nov. 7 about “how to submit and what the judges look for in submissions,” said Hirner.

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By introducing students to the competition, Hirner hopes STA will become more involved with the organization, since the titles available to win carry prestige and validity.

“If we can get [students] on board to consider submitting their own work to Scholastic, I’m hoping a pattern emerges where we see this as a consistent part of our language arts… We have a lot of talent here at St. Teresa’s.”

According to Hirner, the competition gives students whose accomplishments may go unnoticed some recognition.

“This is really a way for students who are creative writers or aspiring writers to get some real recognition for their work.”

Q&A with freshman Allison Porras

Freshman Allison Porras has been interested in poetry for more than 5 years now. Porras is among a growing number of STA students submitting work to the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition. She is submitting 6 of her own poems, including “Below the Poverty Line,” a poem about a poor boy during Christmas, and “Angel’s Slumber” about the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting.

Q: How did you decide you wanted to enter the competition?

A: I just went into the meeting because I like writing and I went to see what it was about. Then they said you can do poetry, so I was like ‘Oh!’ because I’m a poet, I guess you could say.

Q: What do you think sparked your interest in writing?

A: I kind of just always wrote in school and wrote poetry, too. My dad writes and his dad wrote, too. It’s kinda funny. I never really thought that I could write or anything. My dad always had [my brother and me] write Christmas poems… Then one year I did this Christmas poem and it was actually morbid, I guess.

Q: Did you have one point that poetry just clicked for you?

A: The very first time that I started writing poetry, it was in 4th grade and I sat down, on the same ride home that I ride every day. I was just kind of looking at everything differently I guess and that’s how it came. So poetry just kind of abruptly came into my life, and since then, its just always been part of it.

Q: What is your writing process?

A: I’ve found that all the best poems I write are ones that just come to me. It’s funny because I don’t even think about it really, the words just kind of come and they appear on the paper and I look back like ‘Oh! That happened?’

Q: Would you consider poetry as an outlet for you?

A: For me, it is both art and an outlet. So if there’s something going on in my life that I’m feeling really deeply about, then I sometimes will just write about it and I know that I can. One of the poems I’m going to enter was about one of my friends who almost committed suicide.

Q: Do you like having your poetry acknowledged?

A: I always think it’s kind of nice for my work to be appreciated. Not like “I’m famous” but I think everyone wants to be known in their own way.

Q: What are you seeking from entering the competition?

A: I just kinda want to see what’s out there and how my work compares to everyone else’s. People have said that my work is really good, but there’s always that thing inside me that’s like ‘Is it really?’