Malachi Jones, a student in Charleston, South Carolina, will attend his freshman year in the fall at Columbia University thanks to his recent win of the Gold Medal Award as part of the 2018 Scholastic Art & Writing Award -? the highest academic honor one can receive for being a gifted writer.
According to Scholastic Art & Writing Award’s website, the Gold Medal Portfolio offers 16 students each a scholarship of $10,000. “Since 1923, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have recognized the vision, ingenuity, and talent of our nation?s youth, and provided opportunities for creative teens to be celebrated,” the site states. Alumni of the program includes writers Sylvia Plath, Carol Joyce Oates and Truman Capote, and judges include a prolific roster of writers including Nikki Giovanni, Edwidge Danticat, Judy Blume and Langston Hughes.
?I felt like a siren was going off inside my head, but I was speechless. I had been submitting work to Scholastic since 7th?grade, so it is insane to me to think an audience outside my family and peers wants to read and appreciate my work,? Jones said in an interview with the Charleston Chronicle newspaper.
