Yardley student earns National Gold Medal for short story 

What started as a quick check of an online portal during chemistry class turned into one of the biggest moments of Anna Chiang's young writing career.

The Yardley resident and rising Pennsbury High School senior recently earned a National Gold Medal in Short Story from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, one of the nation's most prestigious recognition programs for creative teens. In June, she traveled with her parents to New York City, where she was honored during the National Ceremony at Carnegie Hall alongside other student artists and writers from across the country.

Chiang said she learned she had received the national honor while sitting in chemistry class.

"I checked the Scholastic portal where they send out your results," she recalled. "I opened it up and they said I got the Gold Medal, and then I started jumping up and down and telling my friends."

Although she believed in her work, Chiang knew the odds were steep.

"I felt good about my work, so I was hopeful, but so few submissions get the Gold Medal, so I was not sure," she said.

The competition is highly selective; nearly 335,000 works are submitted nationwide each year.  Chiang said fewer than 2% of submissions receive a national medal, and fewer than 1% receive a National Gold Medal.

For Chiang, the recognition represented years of dedication to her craft.

"Receiving this medal is validation of all the effort I put into this," she said. "I've been writing since I was very young, and I've always spent a lot of time on my writing, so it was nice to have that validated externally."

Chiang, who attended Afton Elementary School and William Penn Middle School before enrolling at Pennsbury High School, said her passion for writing began in elementary school before growing significantly during middle school.

"I've been writing since about second or third grade, but I got into it more in middle school," she said.

Her award-winning short story,“To Hurt or Not to Hurt”, explores the emotional impact of childhood trauma through the experiences of a young girl reflecting on her relationship with her father. 

"The story was about this girl who had flashbacks to moments in her childhood that described her tumultuous relationship with her dad," Chiang explained. "Then it cuts back to the present day, and it's about how this girl is shaped by traumatic experiences and whether those experiences ultimately have a life-changing impact on her."

She said the inspiration came from an observation about the people around her.

"I feel like what inspired me was that everyone is walking around with some kind of baggage that you might not see," Chiang said. "The story asks the question of whether it's better to have any kind of formative experience that may have been difficult and how that affects you later in life."

She hopes readers take away an important message.

"I hope that anyone who reads this will acknowledge the difficult things they might have experienced and think of them as something that has shaped them," she said.

The story is now publicly available through the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards online gallery at artandwriting.org/gallery/search.

While receiving the National Gold Medal was the culmination of years of work, Chiang said attending the ceremony at Carnegie Hall was an unforgettable experience.

Upon arriving, medalists received their awards before taking part in a rehearsal that walked them through the evening's program. Chiang also submitted a short video introducing herself that became part of a montage shown during the ceremony.

"They gave us the opportunity to send them videos of us talking a little bit about ourselves or just clips of us smiling at the camera," she said. "They made a video montage of people who submitted their videos, and I had submitted one, so I was in the video that was shown."

She also enjoyed meeting fellow student writers from around the country.

"I got to meet a lot of other kids from around the country," Chiang said. "There was a designated area in the audience for medal winners, so they had us all stand up together."

The national recognition came after Chiang steadily worked her way through the Scholastic competition. Last year, she received a regional Silver Key for another piece of writing. This year, her work first earned a regional Gold Key, automatically advancing it to national judging, where it ultimately received the National Gold Medal.

Throughout her writing journey, she credits family members, teachers and friends with encouraging her to keep writing and improving.

"My mom has always been a big supporter of me," Chiang said.

She also praised several Pennsbury educators, including her sixth-grade English teacher at William Penn Middle School, Erin Federsel, and Pennsbury High School English teacher, Michelle Burchett.

"My teachers have been some of my biggest cheerleaders," she said.

Friends have also played an important role by reading early drafts and offering honest feedback.

"They tell me what they like, they tell me what they don't like, and sometimes they help me edit a draft," Chiang said.

When writing becomes difficult, she said she reminds herself why she started.

"Writing is very therapeutic for me," Chiang said. "I also really like seeing the final result, so that helps me remain diligent about it."

Last summer, Chiang attended a creative writing program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, an experience she said further strengthened her confidence as a writer.

As she prepares to begin her senior year at Pennsbury High School, Chiang is already working on another short story and a novel. She hopes to one day publish a novel and plans to double major in creative writing and history in college.

"I was always going to pursue writing or English, but receiving this Gold Medal did give me confidence to continue going down this path," Chiang said.

For Chiang, the National Gold Medal marks not the culmination of years of writing, but the beginning of the next chapter. 

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