Junior Allegra Caldera won a NCTE Achievement Award in Writing May 17.  She is one of 274 students of over 1,100 considered nationwide to receive the honor.

A national board of secondary and college English teachers selected the winners, who had to demonstrate superior ability and versatility in writing based on at least two written submissions.

“It’s a rather thorough and rigorous review process,” principal Alan Goodwin said.  “The winners are well noted as being fine writers.  As a former English teacher, I certainly appreciate the accomplishment.”

English teachers nominated about 40 juniors to participate in an initial competition to determine who they would select to enter the national contest.  Competitors had two hours to complete an essay in the computer lab on one of two prompts.  Caldera wrote on the subject of online presence.  Her essay, written in the form of a letter to her cousin, discussed the pros and cons of posting personal profiles.

Based on the resulting essays, English teachers selected three students to move on in the competition. These students submitted an essay on the NCTE-chosen theme “Our World” as well as other writing samples.

Caldera’s “Our World” essay discussed her learning experiences with online communities like Tumblr.  Caldera also submitted an opinion piece she wrote for Black & White and a poem.

“I’m happy to have won,” Caldera said.  “I spent some time putting together the work I’ve submitted.  I’m proud of it.”

Caldera’s win reflects positively on not only the English department, but on the whole community, English resource teacher Beth Rockwell said.

“We have a very talented teaching staff, but we also have a demographic that supports the talent of the staff we have by exposing their kids to many varied experiences,” she said.  “That helps to create a highly educated and highly motivated student community.”

Caldera is a feature editor for the print edition of the Black & White.