As you are preparing to enter your work to the 2025 Scholastic Awards, we invite you to review the juror feedback and advice they offered to the 2024 participants. Remember, the NYC deadline is Tuesday, December 10, 2024. You still have time to perfect your work!
“They are wearing brightly colored sundresses and their faces are caked with sunscreen.”
JUROR ADVICE
Overall Impressions
- Overall, I found the students to be ambitious & unflinching in their explorations of the self — a trait with which I struggled well past high school.
- I love seeing the diversity of content each year! So uplifting to see what young writers are creating.
- Fabulous displays of vulnerability, courage, and fearless experimentation with various media. Many topics covered were timely and reflect important and relatable matters for teens and growing adults.
Emergent Themes
- Adolescence, immigration and family.
- Self-reflection was recurring among the pieces. As were observations of the world and how it impacted them and those close to them.
- Identity politics relating to ethnicity.
- Home, what it means to each person and how it changes over time; explorations of your place in the greater world.
- City landscapes, youthful rebellion, portraiture.
- Space, pollution, love, grieving.
What advice would you give to students and their educators who are preparing to enter to the Scholastic Awards? What can students do to make their work stand out in the judging process?
- List all of your materials for art entries! List all of your sources for both art and writing entries! Even that one image or text your teacher showed you in class months ago!
- Copy edit! Copy edit! Copy edit! Or just read it aloud at least once before submitting. If you read it, you will catch the errors!
- Study the craft and make it your own.
- For films, do not use copyrighted music.
- Don’t be afraid to tell students to use their own voice! Even if it takes an extra hour or an extra day it makes all the difference when you can showcase yourself in your words.
- Reconsider your work titles for your entries! Sometimes a good title is what makes the final decision for us jurors.
- Tie images to themes/concepts. For 3D art put effort into documenting the piece on a blank background.
- Be bold and original. Check your work for any errors before submitting. Less fanfiction and stories depicting themes that are inappropriate, controversial, or excessive (for example, questionable romantic/abusive relationships). More aliens and fantasy worlds, please!
- Put the time and practice in to get what speaks to you.
- Have access to a wider range of sample writing works, not just the classics; if new/unconventional works cannot be incorporated into the curriculum, educators can always recommend other works on the side, giving students a wider range in their literature choices.
COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS
Bronx Documentary Center (BDC) Exhibition Opening
Join us Thursday, November 21, 2024 at 4 PM to 6 PM for the Opening Reception of the Scholastic Awards exhibition at the Bronx Documentary Center. This exhibition features Gold Medal and Silver Medal photography works from the NYC region.
Opening Reception
Thursday, November 21, 2024
4:00–6:00 pm
Bronx Documentary Center Gallery Address
614 Courtlandt Avenue
Bronx, NY 10451
Bronx Documentary Center Open Hours
Tuesdays–Fridays: 3:00–7:00 pm
Saturdays and Sundays: 1:00–5:00 pm
Educator Appreciation Event at Brooklyn Bowl
We invited educators in our network to a night out as a token of appreciation for their time and dedication to the Scholastic Awards. Stay tuned as we feature highlights from a night with free bowling, refreshments and live entertainment.
Featured Image Credit: Gianna Miceli, Isolation, Printmaking, Grade 12, Brooklyn Technical High School, Brooklyn, NY. Gold Key, 2024.
Quote Credit:
Eden Adamek, This Is Real Life, Dramatic Script. Grade 11, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, New York, NY. Gold Key, 2024.