EMS Students Excel at Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

A few of the Art winners with Ms. Coll Nicolaou at the
reception at Montclair State University

With so much attention given to testing, scores and academic performance 

these days, it's important to recognize achievement in creativity once in a while. For over 90 years, the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards have been celebrating the imaginative minds of middle and high school students on both regional and national levels.

Our Gold and Silver Key Winners (a few missing)

For a school like Elisabeth Morrow, a school that fosters creativity within the curriculum, these awards are looked upon as an exciting milestone in the academic year for our students. This year, these EMS students achieved the following at the Regional level:

Sarah Abrahamsen (Hackensack, NJ)

1 Gold Key for Personal Essay/Memoir, 2 Silver Keys for Photography

Christine Anagnos (Haworth, NJ)

1 Silver Key for Poetry

Ava Chiocco (Closter, NJ)

1 Honorable Mention for Poetry

Noah Crooks (Bloomfield, NJ)

1 Silver Key for Science Fiction/Fantasy

Erika Herman (Teaneck, NJ)

2 Gold Keys and 1 Silver Key for Photography,

1 Silver Key for Flash Fiction, and 3 Honorable Mentions for Personal Essay/Memoir, Humor, Poetry (respectively)

Madeleine Kachikian (Hoboken, NJ)

3 Gold Keys for Photography

Elena Latinsky-Ortiz (Bergenfield, NJ)

Maxine Musto's Gold Key Winning Sculpture

1 Honorable Mention for Poetry

Mariah Leontopoulou-Cochran (Oradell, NJ)

1 Honorable Mention for Poetry

Christian Maloney (Hackensack, NJ)

1 Gold Key for Poetry, 1 Silver Key for Dramatic Script,

1 Honorable Mention for Flash Fiction

Tara McConville (Demarest, NJ)

2 Honorable Mentions for Poetry

Maxine Musto (Bogota, NJ)

1 Gold Key for Sculpture and 1 Honorable Mention for Photography

Alexander Philliou (Haworth, NJ)

1 Honorable Mention for Poetry

Nikki Quinn (Cliffside Park, NJ)

2 Honorable Mentions for Photography and Painting (respectively)

Isabel Riedel (Tenafly, NJ)

1 Honorable Mention for Poetry

Daniel Schwartz (Tenafly, NJ)

1 Gold Key for Photography

Overall, the January regional judging saw EMS with 54 entries in the Art category (4 sculpture, 2 fashion, 2 digital art, 2 painting and 44 photography--a category that allows multiple submissions per student). EMS submitted 27 entries in the Writing category (3 memoir, 1 science fiction, 1 humor, 1 dramatic script, 2 flash fiction, 1 short story, and 18 poetry entries--a category, again, that allows multiple entries). At the regional competition, our students went up against student submissions from New Jersey, Maine, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

Ms. Lisa Coll Nicolaou, EMS teacher, who annually coordinates the EMS Scholastic entries, also noted that a number of young alums were also successful on the regional level: Eva Gurian '11 (Academy of Holy Angels), Josh Kurtz '09 (Dwight-Engelwood), Carolina Zuluaga '11 (Academy of Holy Angels), Phoebe Mattana '10 (Dwight-Engelwood), Sofia Joseph '10 (Dwight-Englewood), Alina Sodano '09 (Bergen Academies), Samantha Kirsch '10 (Bergen Academies), and Bryan Rubin '10 (Dwight-Englewood) were among the high school award recipients from New Jersey Schools. EMS also had two known alumni winners from New York, Emily Gruber'11 (Trinity) and Benny Kesslen '10 (Riverdale).

Gold and Silver Key Winners represent the top 15% of all entries received in a particular category for that region. Gold Key Winners are then moved forward for the national-level competition and winners are announced on March 15 with the National Medalists awarded at a ceremony at Carnegie Hall in June.