By Lauren Azrin
The Hudson-to-Housatonic Scholastic Art and Writing Awards is an annual regional competition for high school artists and writers. This year, they received over 1,700 submissions, and around 250 of those were named Honorable Mentions, including the work of WPHS very own, Eva Mandelbaum.
Eva’s piece is a personal essay titled, “My Name.” It’s about her name and what it means to her and her family, as she is named after her great-grandmother. “I wrote about what my name sounds like, tastes like, and feels like to me. I really tried to hone into the senses and my goal was to create a piece with evocative and rich language.”
When speaking about submitting her piece, Eva admitted that she was nervous. “I honestly did not think I would win any recognition at all.” But that made winning all the more exciting, when she got to scroll down the list of winners and see that her very own name was written.
The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards are a chance for young artists and writers to see true potential in their work and their abilities, and is often the spark that leads to the continuation of these creative pursuits. “I’ve never really been recognized as a writer before, and receiving an honorable mention changed the way I view my writing,” explained Eva.
The Awards have been going on for almost a century, since the first competition held in 1923. Any student in grades 7-12 can submit their writing or art pieces, making the competition a great way for young, aspiring artists and writers to gain recognition for their work. Works that win a Gold Key in the regional level have a chance to compete in the national level as well.
The competition accepts submissions every year from around September through December, and then the results are released around February. If you are a young writer or artist, consider submitting your work this fall; there are many categories to choose from. You never know - you could end up winning an award like Eva!
Take it from Eva herself. “If I’ve learned anything from this, it would be that even when things may seem impossible, with hard work (and lots of editing in this case), all goals can become within reach.”
Please visit these links for more information about the competition:
Hudson-to-Housatonic regional writing awards - https://www.artandwriting.org/regions/NY002W
Northeast Region-at-Large regional art awards -