Emily Igwike ’24 Earns National Scholastic Art & Writing Medal

Congratulations to University School of Milwaukee student Emily Igwike ’24, who won a national silver medal in the Scholastic Art & Writing competition for her poem, “how i met the sun” (read the poem here). “I think this piece speaks to me the most, and on so many levels,” said Igwike. “I was inspired by the story of Eve, as well as the idea of her damnation and its manifestations in the lives of women, women of color, and this being hidden from the ‘sun.’ I’m absolutely ecstatic about winning a silver medal, and I hope this will allow others to read my work and truly think about themselves, and how to the poem speaks to them.” 

Congratulations to the following students, who won medals and/or honorable mentions in the regional competition:

Jason Adix ’23: Gold Key in Personal Essay & Memoir for “Why us?”
Dalia Chairez ’24: Silver Key in Personal Essay & Memoir for “Maravilloso”
Jonathan Crawford ’23: Silver Key in Short Story for “Equifinality: On the Fault of Life”
Lucy Flack ’23: Silver Key in Personal Essay & Memoir for “Symphonic Thoughts”
Nathan Hansen ’23: Silver Key in Personal Essay & Memoir for “The Magic of Music”
Nicholas Hu ’23: Honorable Mention in Personal Essay & Memoir for “Asian American Ancestry”
Avana Kelly ’25: Silver Key in Poetry for “Societal Sins”
Raya El-Hajjar ’25: Honorable Mention in Critical Essay for “Walking Across the Aisle”
Anastasia Finley ’25: Honorable Mention in Short Story for “A Flower of Remembrance”
Emily Igwike ’24: Gold Key in Poetry for “how i met the sun,” Gold Key in Short Story for “Carol,” and Honorable Mention in Poetry for “a letter my dad will never read”
Jackson LaManna ’23: Silver Key in Personal Essay & Memoir for “The Mark of Music”
Lexi Lee ’22: Honorable Mention in Poetry for “not guilty”
Ellie Lin ’23: Gold Key in Personal Essay & Memoir for “Through Our Eyes”
Abby Moyer ’22: Honorable Mention in Poetry for “Daily Life in the Demonic Creed”
Zachary Sardas-Trevorrow ’23: Honorable Mention in Short Story for “BURN THIS BITCH DOWN”
Gregory Smith ’22: Honorable Mention in Poetry for “To the Fairytales”
Aidan Wang ’24: Honorable Mentions in critical essay for “Data Privacy in the Digital Age – Is our Personal Data At Risk?” and in poetry for “Sunday Chinese School”
Irene Zheng ’23: Honorable Mention in flash fiction for “The Space of Her”

There were more than 340,000 art and writing entries at the regional level throughout 100 affiliates, and only 5 to 7% of those received Gold Keys and had their work judged again for national consideration. Out of those that were judged, only about 1% received national medals.

In addition to the achievements in Scholastic Writing, read about the 21 USM students who received awards from the Scholastic Art competition in January.