Johnathan Stimpson, an 8th grader at Middlesex Middle School, won the 2013 National Scholastic Art and Writing Gold Medal Award for his persuasive essay “Gun Control; A Call to Action”.
The National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, established in 1923, are the oldest and most prestigious competition and largest source of scholarships for creative teenagers in the United States.
Stimpson said that tragic shootings in the United States, such as the one that happened in Newtown CT, motivated him to write his essay to urge U.S. politicians to move beyond their bi-partisan positions to pass effective gun control legislation.
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Stimpson’s essay submission first won the Gold Key Award at the regional level. His work was then forwarded to the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers in New York City to be reviewed on a national level by panels of art and writing professionals. Less than 1 percent of over 230,000 submissions this year won the prestigious National Scholastic Art & Writing Gold Medal.
The National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have an impressive legacy and a noteworthy roster of past winners who won when they were teenagers including Andy Warhol, Robert Redford, John Lithgow, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, and Joyce Carol Oates.
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On May 31, Stimpson, along with the other National Gold Medal winners, will be honored at a ceremony in Carnegie Hall. To learn more about the National Scholastic Art and Writing awards visit www.artandwriting.org.
Editor's note: For more Middlesex Middle School articles and announcements, see the Middlesex Middle School topics page on Darien Patch. See also the Darien Schools topics page.
