Pictured here are Garden City High School seniors Emily Tudisco (left) and Allison Shen (with Principal Nanine Cuttitta [far left] and 6-12 English Department Curriculum Coordinator Bernadette Arnone), who were awarded certificates for “Superior Writing” from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) in the 2009 competition. Emily and Allison’s submissions were selected from 1,783 nominations across 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, Canada, and American schools abroad.

NCTE’s Achievement Awards in Writing program was established in 1957 to encourage high school students in their writing and to recognize publicly some of the best student writers in the nation. The NCTE judges look for writing that demonstrates effective and imaginative use of language to inform and move an audience.