Middle and Upper Students Receive 200 Scholastic Writing Awards

Seven Hills students received more recognitions than any other school in the Scholastic Writing regional competition, which includes 50 public, private, and parochial schools from southern Ohio as well as parts of Indiana and Kentucky. 

The 200 awards earned by Seven Hills students were tops in the region, outpacing the number of prizes handed out to the next four, most recognized schools — combined. 

Scholastic is the oldest and largest high school competition in the country. Students earning top honors, Gold Keys, in the regional competition go on to the national round. Seven Hills’ eight Gold Keys also led the region in the writing competition.

Seven Hills students were especially successful in the important critical essay category, which most closely lines up with the work students do every day in English class. Seven Hills students took home 129 recognitions, almost three-fourths of the prizes in that category. The second highest total was 18. Seven Hills students were prolific in terms of multiple recognitions in the critical writing category. Of the 31 students who earned multiple essay awards from Scholastic, 29 were Seven Hills students. Award-winning work is an everyday expectation.

Similarly, Seven Hills students led the way the personal narrative and Humor categories, which most closely aligns with the kind of writing students do as part of the college process. In fact, six senior narratives earned recognition — a tribute to the work of the college counseling department and its work with students and partnership with some senior English classes.

Here is a list of the students in Middle and Upper who earned Gold Keys:

You can read sophomore Jackie Katuska’s essay and see a complete list of Seven Hills students who earned recognition.

“Hats off to the Art Academy of Cincinnati for sponsoring the competition again this year. Their work is a wonderful gift to our community of young writers and artists,” Upper School English department chair Mark Beyreis said of the results. “I have the deepest respect for the students at Seven Hills and those across our region who had the guts to write something and then share it with the world to read. And I’m thrilled for all the Seven Hills writers who were recognized this year. Every recognition is a huge accomplishment. This year I was struck by how many of the Seven Hills students earned multiple recognitions in essay writing. That suggests to me two things: students at Seven Hills have set award winning quality as their standard and they are committed to working with the English department to develop their voices, to learn to take risks, and to write with purpose.”