2020 Scholastic Writing Award Gold Medal Winner, Ciel M. ’22

The Scholastic Awards for art and writing are an important part of Waterford School’s tradition, and we proudly celebrate each year as our talented students bring home a number of Gold and Silver Keys and Honorable Mentions. In 2019 alone, Scholastic reports that students around the country submitted over 340,000 creative works for consideration, and we were proud to rank our students among those celebrated artists. After Scholastic presents those awards, they further consider Gold Key works of art for national medals, including Gold and Silver medals, American Voices & Vision medals, and Special Achievement Awards. This is a distinguished honor that is celebrated with a National Ceremony at Carnegie Hall.

Waterford is proud to celebrate Ciel M. ’22 as a 2020 Scholastic Writing Award Gold Medal winner. Her poem, “A Little Bird,” asks profound questions about the meaning of life and the nature of beauty, and Ciel masterfully captures these abstract questions into the image of a bird in the poem itself. Her poem is an exemplary representation of the concrete poetry form. I asked Ciel how much her experience with visual art contributed to this particular poem. She said, “Many of my earliest drawings and paintings are of birds, and they still remain prominent in many of my pieces, so I believe that being a visual artist also played a role in wanting to incorporate both birds and something visual into my written work.” In whatever medium Ciel chooses to work, she embodies Waterford’s celebration of creativity and artistic passion, and we are thrilled to recognize this great accomplishment. Congratulations, Ciel!