An eighth-grade student at Edgecomb’s Center for Teaching and Learning has been recognized at the national level by the Scholastic Writing Awards.

Sydney Sullivan of Portland was awarded the prestigious American Voices Medal by Scholastic’s Alliance for Young Artists and Writers. Sydney was honored for a collection of four poems.

To qualify for the national level, Sydney received an American Voices Nomination in the Maine Regional Awards and was recognized, along with nine of her CTL peers, in a ceremony at the University of Southern Maine on March 11.

The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards are the gold standard for recognizing the creative achievements of U.S. students in grades 7-12. The contest dates back to 1923. Past winners include Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Robert Redford, Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen King, John Updike, and many more. In the past five years alone, over 900,000 pieces of writing have been submitted. Sydney’s accomplishment places her in the top 1 percent of students who entered the competition.

The award will be distributed in a ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City this June 2.