28 Ransom Everglades LOG FALL 2025 Write On! RE juniors claim national scholastic writing awards Poetic Excellence Upper schoolers sweep top awards at Poetry Night at the Barnacle Student Connor Alfonso ’26 and Patrick Keedy Brown ’26 earned national medals in the 2025 Scholastic Writing Awards competition last March. Alfonso received a national gold medal in the humor category for “A Day at McSub King,” as well as the prestigious American Voices Award, a special recognition for a small number of gold-medal winners. Keedy Brown won two national silver medals in the highly competitive poetry category for “This is Not a New Story” and “Chéad Cháisc, Ansin Earrach.” Alfonso, Keedy Brown and three other Ransom Everglades students – Taylor Smith ’25 (photography), Misha Gowda ’28 (poetry) and Vinay Rajadhyaksha ’30 (digital) – advanced to the national competition after winning Gold Keys in the 2025 Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards contest in the southern region. Sixteen RE students earned Silver Keys and 22 won Honorable Mention in the southern region. National medals are awarded to less than 1 percent of the 310,000 submissions to the annual art and writing competition, which was established in 1923. RE student-poets earned the top three awards presented at the second annual Poetry Night at The Barnacle in celebration of National Poetry Month. After reading their poems aloud on the lawn of The Barnacle Historic State Park with 10 other finalists from five South Florida Schools, Miguel Kumar ’25 received the top prize for “I never looked into those catatonic eyes”; Alexa Charouhis ’27 won second place for “One Fine Morning”; and Patrick Keedy Brown ’26 scored third place for “On the thousandth night, Scheherazade tells her final tale.” Nearly 600 poems were submitted for the April 9 event. The award winners were selected by six esteemed poets: Richard Blanco, Campbell McGrath, Ricardo Pau-Llosa, Denise Duhamel, Michael Hettich and Jaswinder Bolina. Blanco and Bolina read their own poetry at the event. Said Blanco before the winners were announced: “I wish I was writing poetry that good at that age.” RE faculty member Corinne Rhyner facilitated the students’ participation in the event and spearheaded a slate of fun activities to mark National Poetry Month. Sofie Delic ’28 and Arhan Shah ’27 earned finalist recognition (top 15) at poetry night and many RE students earned semifinalist recognition and the display of their poems on the Barnacle property: Alexander Kazumoff ’25, Claudia Colina ’25, Kayra Serpenguzel ’25, Lael Sanders ’26, Daniel Depass-Jurberg ’28, Harrison Lamnin ’25, Lexi Barna ’25, Misha Gowda ’28 and Sabine Wolfensberger ’27. News RE students with awards: Alexa Charouhis ’27, Miguel Kumar ’25, Patrick Keedy Brown ’26 Connor Alfonso ’26 and Patrick Keedy Brown ’26
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