Creative Writing Awards

Five Riverview High School students; Sarah Ferguson , Megan Geers, Emma Atherton, Aerion Watford and Adelaide Landsman were selected as winners in the National Scholastic Art and Writing competition.

All English classes had the opportunity to compete regionally. Contest entries were in by December 15, and regional winners were announced at the end of January. Students who win Gold Keys regionally, advance nationally. There are 6,000 finalists and the five RVHS winners won either Gold, Silver or Honorable mention awards, for a total of 23 awards. If determined a national winner, they will be flown to New York City. Each winner gets a travel stipend, and will be presented Gold Medals in a Carnegie Hall ceremony during the first week of June.

On March 13, Gold Key winners will be announced. Three of the Riverview winners, Ferguson, Geers and Landsman, are candidates for this award. All regional art and writing winners will be honored on March 27 at the Falk Theatre in Tampa.

Michael Zelazo, journalism and creative writing teacher here at RVHS, said, “I am tremendously proud of the creative writing staff, winning 23 regional awards. The five students have done an outstanding job; it is nice to see them getting recognized.”

The girls themselves are also very excited. Ferguson, winner of this competition last year claims to be “Very excited.” Ferguson plans on “Pursuing something in the writing field after high school.” The group of ladies all share a passion for writing in different ways. Atherton said “I honestly write on whatever comes to mind, my experiences help mold my writing.” While Geers stated, “I have loved writing since I was young, it has always been a passion of mine.” For Landsman, her passion was found through Zelazo’s writing class. “I found that I was actually really good at writing through his creative writing class!”