CVHS students have long been known to participate in challenging academic competitions from robotics competitions to chess tournaments. For the 2024-2025 school year, CVHS students have received acknowledgements and awards for the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards for their works in both the writing and art accolades.
“Interestingly enough, it really flipped this year. We had way more winners in the writing category this year, and I personally have had a lot more winners in art the last few years,” Rachel Bohenick, a CVHS English 1 teacher, said.
Winning a Scholastic Art and Writing award can be very difficult, as students’ work has to compete with that of thousands of other students in their region before it can be nominated.
The competition was founded in 1923 by Maurice Robinson and has since recognized the work of hundreds of students. It involves students between 7th and 12th grade who submit original writing and art works for judges to assess in their regional competitions. Some of the categories for writing pieces are science fiction, short stories and personal narratives. Art can include photography, which many students at CVHS enter work for, jewelry, sculptures, painting and drawings among others.
Once submitted to the online platform in the late fall, the work is reviewed by several judges. If the judges deem the work acceptable, the student who created the work will be awarded either a Silver Key, Gold Key or an Honorable Mention in the winter. There is typically an in-person award ceremony later in the spring to accompany the student’s accomplishments.
After the work has passed through the regional competition, it has the chance to advance to the national level competition, where the work will be judged against a larger pool or works. If the work is chosen again, the creator can earn other recognitions that are similar to the regional ones.
In this school year’s competition, senior Lamees el Beheary won a silver key in the National Scholastic Art and Writing competition for her original poem “Don’t Look at Me.”
“I wrote that poem [about] two years ago. It was about my experience as a Muslim, just existing in the world. And especially at that time when there was legislation being passed around the world that was very anti-Islamic. [The poem] was like my response to that and how I was feeling about those things,” El Beheary said.
She has edited her poem since then to reflect her current feelings and experiences. “I wrote the poem in my sophomore year, and then I went back and revised it a little bit as a senior,” El Beheary stated.
The competition is highly competitive and hard to win, as el Beheary said that she “genuinely didn’t think that it was going to win.”
“It was a surprise. I didn’t check the portal or anything, I just got the email,” El Beheary reflected.
Bohenick says that El Beheary’s win is very significant to CVHS and its student body.
“It’s unusual to get a national winner,” Bohenick said. “It’s been a while since we had anybody win at the national level, several years I think, so that is pretty exciting.”
Bohenick explains how important making creative works is for students, saying that “students need to remember that the end goal of all of that structure [from schoolwork] is to have your own creative outlet and voice. And I think it’s important to recognize who you are through trying to have that kind of voice and making work that has importance to a broader audience.”
El Beheary wants students to know that their works are important and don’t deserve scorn.
“Never look down upon your art. There’s always potential, no matter how bad you think it is. I didn’t see that much potential in [my writing] until I looked over it and was like ‘huh, this is ok,’” El Beheary ended.
