<p>@belle07: Well, if you’re out for submitting too many poems, then I definitely am as well. (My entire WRAL portfolio was in verse!) I wouldn’t give up hope yet…it’s the merit of the pieces that counts more than how many different categories you’ve submitted under. A portfolio won one year that was almost entirely memoir pieces…good luck to all gold key-ers!</p>
<p>…& does anyone know when national notifications happen? The website says the press release is out April 7th, but I’m assuming winners are told sometime before then. Thoughts?</p>
<p>Congrats, LYM and ZnO! You guys seem to be the last RALers on this thread to hear about their awards. It’s worth the wait though.</p>
<p>I dunno the answer, inhabited_world, but I assume that we’d all go online to check who won national awards. Scholastic doesn’t seem well-organized enough to inform the winners ahead of time. But you’d let us know, right? :)</p>
<p>^yeah, i got a national award last year and you just had to go online and check. i didn’t get my medal until like november this year, lol, if that tells you anything…</p>
<p>Elefantes, that is pretty funny. I guess people who don’t live close to NYC will have to settle for knowing that they have won and not worry so much about when they will get their medals. There’s got to be a better way. Maybe Scholastic should let Regional Affiliates give out national medals too.</p>
<p>yes, they should. it’s not well-organized at all, although it is a wonderful program. i’m not sure why they don’t have it together a bit more. incentive to go to the ceremony, i guess.</p>
<p>You are right, Elefantes. Since they paid for Carnegie Hall, they might as well “encourage” national winners to attend.</p>
<p>@Inhabited_world: haha i bet your work is really good though. i’m really disappointed in mine… i have written much better pieces post-submitting my portfolio. i just didn’t put in the effort…threw it together and threw it in the mail the day it was due. we’ll see though…maybe they’ll be impressed by our poeticness lol. april 7 is so far away! <em>fingers crossed for both of us!</em></p>
<p>Congrats ZnO ^^, actually, I got a gold key for fine arts too. Thanks for answering my questions too Straightoar. By the ways, when/how will I know whether I somehow made it into national–for RAL, by the ways. Cause I know I got a gold key, but I don’t know when or how I’m going to receive it…</p>
<p>Probably a really dumb question, but I can’t get it out of my head. After you get a gold key, do you have to send anything to Scholastic again, or do they take care of it themselves. The ‘forwarded to New York’ confuses me. Thanks :)</p>
<p>aXw, don’t tell me u didn’t email Scholastic agreeing to be considered for national awards!! jk 
WRAL gold keys are automatically entered for national consideration. However, I’m not sure whether national art jurors base their decisions on the orginal artworks. My guess is “no.”</p>
<p>As Tres Elefantes suggests above, we’ll find out about the national awards first by checking the Scholastic site on 4/7. If your artwork won a national gold or silver key, I’d imagine they’d also get in touch with you at some point to send your original to New York City to be displayed.</p>
<p>So, you haven’t received your WRAL gold keys yet? You’ll get them eventually, but don’t expect much. They’ll come in a large enevelope with a cover letter and certificates. For me at least, it was far more exciting to hear that I won.</p>
<p>I got a letter today saying I won a national silver medal for personal essay/memoir. </p>
<p>I was so surprised because I didn’t think I would find out this early - so the rest of the letters should be coming out soon!</p>
<p>Good luck!!! :]</p>
<p>tsubomi, congrats!!! And thx for the heads up. Despite my best intentions, I stood in the drizzle to wait for the mail. Nothing … yet.</p>
<p>Congratulations, how exciting! I’m trying not to get my hopes up for any national recognition, but I do rush to the mailbox more frantically every day ;)</p>
<p>I just got my national awards packet! </p>
<p>Does anyone know how many golds/silvers they give out in each event?</p>
<p>Congrats, gac!!! In the past few years, about 1,000 national medals are awarded each year. Besides gold and silver, there are also a few American Voices medals for Regional Affiliates. With three new categories this year, Scholastic may award more than 1,000. Since there are a lot more art than writing, my guess is that the awards are like 60% art and 40% writing.</p>
<p>it’s postmarked March 19. But I live in northern NJ (close to NYC), so it probably reached me relatively quickly</p>
<p>I was just wondering how many kids in each category received one, since there’s 500 golds/600 silvers across the board and I have no idea how many categories there are.</p>
<p>I’m so psyched! I hope to see some of you guys in June :)</p>
<p>ahhh i doubt i got one… but i live in new england… so maybe it wouldn’t have reached me yet?</p>
<p>I’m an east coaster (south though), and I got mine today. Don’t lose hope yet!</p>