This year, 21 U-High students received 38 awards in the Midwest Scholastic Art & Writing competition. 

Winners include Caledonia Abbey, honorable mention, personal essay and memoir; Julia Anitescu, silver key, science fiction and fantasy; Fermi Boonstra, honorable mentions in humor and in science fiction and fantasy; Leland Culver, silver keys in journalism and in humor, honorable mention, dramatic script; Devyani Dharanipragada, silver key, flash fiction; Natalie Hultquist, honorable mention, personal essay and memoir; Alisha Kumar, silver key, poetry; Sara Kumar, gold key, short story; Elizabeth Lin, honorable mention, short story; Esha Mishra, silver key and honorable mention in critical essay, honorable mention, personal essay and memoir; John Nielsen, three honorable mentions in humor, honorable mention, silver key and gold key in dramatic script; Jenna Nimer, two honorable mentions, poetry; Jessica Pan, silver key in personal essay and memoir, two honorable mentions and a gold key in flash fiction,  honorable mention, short story; Destiny Strange, honorable mention, writing portfolio; Alina Susani, honorable mention, poetry; Jasmine Tan, silver key, flash fiction; David Tapper, two honorable mentions, poetry; Lauren Tapper, silver key in poetry, silver key and honorable mention in short story; Sasha Watson, silver key, short story; William Zhu, honorable mention, critical essay. 

Gold Key recipients are automatically considered for national-level Scholastic Writing Awards. All winners are invited to the “Scholastic Celebration in Three Acts” held in the Iowa Memorial Union on March 7 to recognize the student’s works in addition to the teachers who foster their creativity.

“I watched a really sappy rom-com and I really think that’s what did it,” silver key winner Alisha Kumar said. “My English teacher brought up the competition and she’d been reading some of my stuff beforehand so thought it would be a good idea to submit.”