Five Brother Martin juniors and members of the Class of 2024 have earned recognition in the Scholastic Writing Awards, the nation's longest-running and most prestigious annual awards program for creative teens. Jason Childs, Sam Dinshaw, Colin Hill, Dylan Rhoton, and Samuel Yuratich each received honors in the first round of competition in the Critical Essay category for the Southeast Louisiana Region.

Four students earned the Gold Key, which moves their essays on to the national round of competition. Gold Key entries are considered for national awards, including Gold Medal, Silver Medal with Distinction, Silver Medal, and scholarship awards, and also receive invitations to appear at an awards ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City. National Medalists will be announced on March 22.

Judges assess works that exemplify the Awards’ values of originality, technical skill, and emergence of a personal voice or vision. Luminaries who have served as judges include Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, Judy Blume, Billy Collins, Paul Giamatti, Francine Prose, Edwidge Danticat, David Sedaris, Lesley Stahl, Nikki Giovanni, and many others.

The Brother Martin community would like to wish these Crusaders the best of luck in the national round of competition, and we congratulate all five honorees for their outstanding accomplishments in writing.

Jason Childs – Gold Key – Critical Essay – “The Clean Version”

Sam Dinshaw – Gold Key – Critical Essay – "Renewable Energy: The Only Acceptable Energy Source"

Colin Hill – Silver Key – Critical Essay – “Renewable Energy: It's Time to Make the Switch”

Dylan Rhoton – Gold Key – Critical Essay – "Breonna Taylor and the Failure of No-Knock Warrants"

Samuel Yuratich – Gold Key – Critical Essay – "Cell Phone Addiction: the Unspoken Mental Disorder"