<p>My DD16 just mentioned she might want to check out the Scholastic Art & Writing Award for some writing she's been doing in a writing program after school. I'm not familiar with the awards program. She's so booked already, with test prep, school, new friends, and a few other activities, I wonder if she should take the time to submit, especially because her writing is likely not "tops." Haven't learned much about it yet. Might any experienced parents be willing to clue me in? Thanks!</p>
<p>It’s a nice award to have and is great positive reinforcement for students with interest in writing, having a deadline and a goal is incentive to tighten up the writing… If the workshop teacher thinks her writing is good enough to submit and she is interested I wouldn’t stop her.</p>
<p>I agree with @BrownParent; it’s a nice experience and positive feedback. If your DD already has some writing, it is not a lot of effort to submit one or more pieces to Scholastic. When she is a senior, and if she is still interested in writing, if she submits any writing that year and is awarded for it, some colleges give scholarship money for that.</p>
<p>My daughter participated in this and really enjoyed it. It’s not a big deal to submit materials.</p>
<p>It is a real award. If your daughter has already written work that she could submit, submitting is easy and not particularly public (if she doesn’t win, she won’t be losing publicly). There’s no reason to discourage her from submitting, unless she’s a perfectionist who will obsess about entering a contest. </p>
<p>One thing we learned is that you/your kid can’t just submit it yourself. There is some component for a teacher to fill out (found out the hard way when D2 had a poem to submit, but we waited until right near the deadline…which overlapped with a school break). She didn’t end up submitting. It is real work, and what is the harm of submitting? If she doesn’t win anything, just don’t put it on her college apps. If she does win, it is a nice addition.</p>
<p>Wow, I didn’t know there was a role for a teacher to be involved. That’s a good idea to have her ask her workshop instructors for advice. I know they submitted kid’s writing to some other contest last year, but I think it was city-level. If her instructors give her a thmubs-up, perhaps they can help her English teacher do the official submitting (or whatever is required) . DD16 is good about losing, and she definitely wouldn’t obsess, so this actually might be a great chance for her to steward her own application (get practice for next year’s college apps!). Again, thanks!</p>