ThreeSixty Journalism student Mina Yuan is one of five high school students in the Midwest Region to receive a Gold Key award in the journalism category of the 2016 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards – which bills itself as “the nation’s longest-running, largest, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens.”
“I feel so exhilarated to have won this award and to have received the opportunity to move on to the national competition.”
Yuan, a junior at Wayzata High School and a senior reporter at ThreeSixty, earned the regional Gold Key for an in-depth story she wrote on Internet censorship in high schools for the June 2015 issue of ThreeSixty Magazine. As a Gold Key winner, Yuan will be invited to a recognition ceremony and her article will be considered for recognition at the national level. Students who receive National Gold Medals, which will be announced in March, will be honored in June at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
“I in no way expected to win a Gold Key or any award at all when I submitted my article,” Yuan said. “I feel so exhilarated to have won this award and to have received the opportunity to move on to the national competition, because this article in particular means a lot to me – it was the most challenging piece I have written for ThreeSixty so far in terms of both the complexity of the subject itself and the sensitivity of the topic. I am really glad I had the chance to explore this topic, and I’m so honored to receive this award.”
Notable alumni of the awards program include Sylvia Plath, Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Stephen King, Lena Dunham, Zac Posen and Richard Linklater, according to the program’s website.
