Three Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science students received national recognition for their writing in the 2024 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, with more than 20 other MSMS students winning regional honors.
MSMS English Teacher Thomas Richardson said the Scholastic Awards are the oldest and most prestigious awards for high schoolers in the country.
Each year, more than 100,000 students summit nearly 340,000 original works of art and writing to be judged on originality and skill. Only a small percentage of those works are recognized on the national level, Richardson said.
“There’s a lot of work that goes into it on the students’ side,” he told The Dispatch. “They are in the workshop process in the fall with pieces they write for creative writing or another class. They have to make it through the regional round. … If they win a gold key on the state level, it heads to national adjudication.”
Three of Richardson’s students were awarded national honors this year. Ava Grace Noe was awarded two silver medals for her poem “Laundry Day” and short story “Morning Glory.” Senior Sydney Beane won a gold medal for her personal essay “Black Magic,” and junior Savannah Massey won a silver medal for her personal essay “Black Magic.”
Each of the students, Richardson said, are constantly looking for opportunities to improve their skills when it comes to writing, making it no surprise that their work made it to the national level.
“There’s something to be said for a natural voice or that kind of unquantifiable talent, but those three in particular are really committed to the craft of writing,” he said.
In each region of the Scholastic Awards, five students are nominated for the prestigious American Voices Awards, which focuses on the emergence of a personal voice or vision. For the first time this year, four out of the five nominations for Mississippi were MSMS students. Noe ultimately took home the winning title with her dramatic script “I’ll Wear Pearls.”
Noe, who graduated from MSMS in May, said having her work recognized on a national level reaffirmed her love for writing.
“Writing a lot of times just feels like you’re shouting in a void or writing in that diary with a lock on it,” Noe said. “It’s things like this that kind of pop the bubble and say, ‘No you’re doing something really worthwhile right now,’ and it’s such a privilege to say that.”
Noe’s home state has always been an inspiration in her writing. Representing Mississippi with her work and winning on a national level was the highest honor, she said.
“Storytelling is the thing that connects Mississippians everywhere,” she said. “When you look past the mud in the Mississippi River, you find just real people who are trying their best. And so I think that’s what writing really and truly means to me. It’s just making people look at Mississippi for two more seconds and thinking maybe it’s worth a shot.”
When Noe started her junior year at MSMS, she said she had decided to push her writing to the back burner in order to focus on STEM studies instead. Two years later, Noe said her time at MSMS has encouraged her to stick with writing as she prepares to start college at Mississippi State in the fall.
“When I went to MSMS, I was 100% convinced I’m going to be a computer science major,” she said. “Now I’m leaving the math and science school, I’m known as the ‘English kid,’ and I’m going to be double majoring in computer science and English.”
Massey, who was also awarded two gold keys for poetry, said her time at MSMS has allowed her to focus on improving her writing despite the school’s STEM-focused curriculum.
“I definitely have always loved writing, but I wasn’t that good of a writer before MSMS,” she told The Dispatch. “I didn’t really put myself out there in doing competitions. … But at MSMS, having someone to actually guide me into certain things I should or shouldn’t do or different stylistic choices, has been really helpful.”
The MSMS students’ desire to be successful in all areas, not just math and science, is a testament to their scholarship, Richardson said. The students are expected to approach learning the same way no matter the subject, and that’s what sets them apart, he added.
“I think what we all want from our students at any department at MSMS is for them to challenge themselves to become independent scholars, whatever that may look like,” Richardson said. “At such a STEM school, the focus they have on arts and humanities has been … really special to be a part of.”
Beane could not be reached by press time.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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