GEORGETOWN, Del. - Four Sussex Academy students were recognized by the New York Times for their entries in the Times' writing contest this week.
Sussex Academy students Barbara Carneiro-Duarte, Alex Horner, Skyleigh Passwaters and Aarna Sharda, were ranked among the top 15 percent of over 12,000 entries in the publication's Personal Word Narrative Contest.
The contest consisted of submitting a powerful narrative of no more than 100 words and was open to students between the ages of 13 and 19 from anywhere in the world.
According to Sussex Academy, all four students made it mast the first two rounds of judging, leaving them among the more than 1,600 best entries remaining.
The students tackled a wide variety of topics and stories, from Carneiro-Duarte's family focused story "Bombshells" to Horner's "The Swamp and the Croc" about a lost shoe, to Passwaters' "Feelings Behind the Curtain" expressing her warmth for her father to Sharda's nostalgia for her childhood in "The Golden Days".
The contest's judges noted in a letter to the students the potential in all of their works, "whether it was your unique topic, your ability to weave a compelling story or your way with words.”
Karen Hugues, an eighth-grade writing teacher at Sussex Academy, expressed her excitement about how far these students have come, noting this was the most winners that Sussex Academy has had in the Times' contest in a single year.
“I am proud of our students,” said Hugues, “As they have made purposeful decisions in crafting their writing pieces. They have worked to find their individual voices and these tiny memoirs demonstrate that.”