Gold medal writing: Cranbury School’s Elaina Phillips fueled by desire to try again and succeed

By Mike Morsch, Regional Editor
Last year, Cranbury School student Elaina Phillips approached English teacher Elizabeth Grimaldi with a request: Elaina had written a piece that she wanted published in the school’s online newsletter.
But the story contained several errors and seemed like it had been written in a rush, the teacher believed.
Not wanting to discourage Elaina from writing, Grimaldi asked Elaina to do some more work on it and resubmit it for consideration.
“I was worried that I had hurt her feelings,” said Grimaldi, lead teacher of the English team. “Instead of giving up, she was fueled by the desire to try again and to succeed.”
It took another year, but boy, did Elaina succeed.
She was recently honored with a gold medal in the 2017 National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards competition and was honored in a national ceremony June 8 at Carnegie Hall in New York.
According to Grimaldi, Elaina’s story was written in response to an assignment that Grimaldi had developed as part of the eighth grade curriculum. The writing assignment followed an extensive study of the Gothic genre. Students were given a set of instructions that required them to adhere to a fully aligned Gothic tale. They then had to incorporate the characteristics of the genre in order to perform well on the assignment.
“We don’t ask them to write it until after they’ve read and studied the works of Edgar Allen Poe and several other modern Gothic writers,” said Grimaldi. “They are ready to write the story when the time comes due to the extensive author studies. Elaina’s story is characterized by sophisticated language and vivid imagery, and a great dose of character development. The piece was submitted in rough draft form and I gave her some feedback. She made some revisions and eventually submitted it.”
It is the second gold medal award winner from the Cranbury School in as many years. Last year, Uma Mani won a gold medal in the same competition.
The title of Elaina’s piece is “If You See It” and takes place near an old barn (could be in Cranbury?) and to quote from the author, a woman named Sosia, “She was a supernatural figure who became an exact replica of you if you saw her – or basically your doppelganger.”
In addition to Elains’ gold medal, other Cranbury School students were recognized in this year’s competition, including: Grace Heilbronn: Gold Key in Short Story for Mortem’s Chamber of the Forgotten; Layla Mobin-Uddin: Silver Key in Journalism for Action Against Hunger in Syria and an Honorable Mention in Science Fiction/Fantasy for Quake of the Queen; Victoria Pagano: Honorable Mention in Poetry for Pitter Thump Patter Thump; Priya Patel: Honorable Mention in Short Story for A New Cinderella Story and a Silver Key in Critical Essay for School Start Times and Sleep Patterns; One Teengager’s Perspective; Subhashree Sivakumar: Honorable Mention in Short Story for Cookies ‘n Cream and Sweatshirt; Aurora Yuan: Gold Key in Poetry for Better Than Me, Words, Perfect Girl; and Eva Zhu: Honorable Mention in Poetry for As Biscuit and Butter.
“Elaina is a magnificent person. She has an ‘old soul’ and a supremely formed character,” said Grimaldi. “She works hard to earn her grades. I believe she has an acute sensitivity to the world around her, which is often a signature trait of a great writer.”
And it keeps alive an incredible run that the school has had with its writing program over the past decade. The English department has five teachers – Beth Chen, Erica Kauffman, Teresa Leary, Andrea Kaplan and Laura Burke – and all are specialists in the field of reading and writing.
“Our program is very rigorous and challenging,” said Grimaldi. “It challenges the kids to think critically, to be discerning readers and not to memorize facts.”
“It’s unbelievable that we have won this award two years in a row. A combination of fate smiling on us, and good old hard work. I believe we will have other winners. Only time will tell. We try to tap into every child’s potential and hope that writing will be a vehicle for both self-discovery and deep learning,” said Grimaldi.
A record-breaking 330,000 works of art and writing were submitted for adjudication at the regional level in the competition’s 29 categories, which include poetry, photography, sculpture, humor, editorial cartoons, video game design and more.
The awards have helped foster the creativity and talent of millions of students across the United States. Alumni of the awards have gone on to become leaders in their fields and include Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Joyce Carol Oates, Philip Pearlstein, Ken Burns, Sylvia Plath, John Updike, Stephen King, Richard Linklater, Zac Posen, and Lena Dunham.