Are you a creative person? Do you love writing or art? Have you been looking for a place to showcase your talents? If you answered “yes” to any of these, read on to learn about an upcoming opportunity for Central York students.

The annual Scholastic Art and Writing Contest is NOW OPEN. This contest provides a chance for students to share their creative pieces and possibly have their piece showcased in a published magazine. It is open to students between the ages of 12 and 18. 

The contest consists of many different categories targeting all areas of the arts. These categories include ceramics, digital art, fashion, film, photography, critical essays, scripts, poetry, short stories and many more. Students are encouraged to enter multiple categories. Check out www.artandwriting.org to see the requirements for each category.

The entering process is simple. First, register online through the Scholastic website. Then, write a brief description of your piece and submit it digitally. After that, a teacher from Central will look over your entry to make sure you didn’t plagiarize and offer any edits. The deadline for submissions of edited pieces is Oct. 16. Submit your final work to the Google Drive account [email protected]. From there, your work will be sent off for judgment by a select group of individuals.

“Each year the group who runs it collects librarians, professional writers, teachers [and] college professors to judge the contest,” said Erin McDaniel, an English teacher who has worked with this contest for 18 years.

All final submissions are due by Nov. 13. The winners for this contest are announced in late January.

The contest is judged on a regional and national level. Students who place high enough will receive keys. The gold key means students will move onto the national level, which is more competitive. Students who receive a silver key won’t be moving on in the competition, but are still recognized as having submitted work that impressed the judges. 

This contest is very popular and widely-recognized across the country as a respected competition for students to partake in. Central receives an average of 25-75 interested students each year. This makes for about 60 to 100 submissions for teachers to go through.

“…the Scholastic Writing Competition allows [you] to express yourself and show who you are as a writer,” said Emma Crumling, a senior who won a gold-key last year.

If you’re even remotely interested in pursuing a career in writing, publishing, journalism or communications you should consider entering. This contest looks great on college applications. Another bonus is getting the chance to go through the editing process with teachers who have experience in this area. Learning how to take criticism at an early age will help you as you move forward in life.

If you’re interested in learning more, reach out to Ms. McDaniel in room 537 or Mrs. Detwiler in room 528. Also, check out cyhsscholasticcontest.weebly.com for more information and links.