Cortez Washington '26 Earns Prestigious NCTE Writing Honor
Congratulations to Cortez Washington '26 has been awarded the First Class designation in the 2025 Achievement Awards in Writing by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), a prestigious national recognition for high school writers.
The NCTE Achievement Awards in Writing is a school-based writing program established in 1957 to encourage high school students to write and to recognize some of the best student writers in the nation. In the 2025 contest, 680 students were nominated from across the United States and international schools, with submissions evaluated on content, purpose, audience, tone, word choice, organization, development, and style. The First Class designation is awarded to students whose writing demonstrates exceptional skill and creativity.
This award recognizes Washington's compelling poem crafted in response to reading Ralph Ellison’s seminal novel, Invisible Man, in AP Literature. His poem can be read here.
This recognition adds to Washington's growing list of accolades. Earlier this year, he received Gold and Silver Keys in Poetry from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, a testament to his talent and dedication to the literary arts, as well as the C. Ferdinand Sybert Medal for outstanding achievement in Classical and Modern Language.
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The NCTE Achievement Awards in Writing is a school-based writing program established in 1957 to encourage high school students to write and to recognize some of the best student writers in the nation. In the 2025 contest, 680 students were nominated from across the United States and international schools, with submissions evaluated on content, purpose, audience, tone, word choice, organization, development, and style. The First Class designation is awarded to students whose writing demonstrates exceptional skill and creativity.
This award recognizes Washington's compelling poem crafted in response to reading Ralph Ellison’s seminal novel, Invisible Man, in AP Literature. His poem can be read here.
This recognition adds to Washington's growing list of accolades. Earlier this year, he received Gold and Silver Keys in Poetry from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, a testament to his talent and dedication to the literary arts, as well as the C. Ferdinand Sybert Medal for outstanding achievement in Classical and Modern Language.
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is the nation’s most comprehensive literacy organization, supporting more than 25,000 teachers across the preK–college spectrum. Through the expertise of its members, NCTE has served at the forefront of every major improvement in the teaching and learning of English and the and the language arts since 1911. www.ncte.org
